Readings : Acts13:44-52; Ps.97; John 14:7-14
Throughout Acts of the Apostles there are frequent references to the Name. For example, the apostles were happy to heal and even suffer for the sake of the name. The name referred to is, of course, Jesus, and their reliance is rooted in the declaration in today’s Gospel – ‘Whatever you ask for in my name’, repeated ‘If you ask for anything in my name’. Jesus has many names throughout the New Testament, a multiplicity of titles testifying to his relationship with God whom he calls ‘Father’ and those who have faith in him as their Lord and Saviour. It is Peter who, ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’, proclaimed ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).
Shakespeare’s ‘What’s in a name?’ was often mentioned in the recent pre-conclave speculation about the successor to Francis, which continued after his election with the choice of Leo XIV by the new Pope. Some commentators claimed the choice of his name would give a clue to the ecclesial positioning and evangelical priorities of his pontificate. The declaration of some of Pope Leo’s Augustinian confreres that they would continue to call him ‘Bob’ dovetails with the description of him as ‘Builder’. ‘Bob the Builder’ is not irreverent, infantile or iconoclastic because he has assumed both the title and role of Pontifex, (literally a bridge maker). Immediately after the conclave, in his first Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World), Pope Leo identified Christ as the irreplaceable bridge to God, invoking His help to construct bridges between all peoples for the sake of universal peace:
‘We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us…Humanity needs him as the bridge that can lead us to God and his love. Help us, one and all, to build bridges through dialogue and encounter, joining together as one people, always at peace’.
Both Peter and his successor Leo XIV proceed from the name of Jesus in their proclamation, presentation and performance of the Gospel, in the hope of the verse from today’s Psalm: ‘All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God’.
Fr. Kevin O’Gorman SMA