May 4, 2025, 3rd Sunday of Easter, year "C"
Acts 5, 27-32. 40-41; Rv 5, 11-14; Jn 21, 21, 1-19
Homily
I would like to center our attention during this homily, mostly on the first reading, which is all about names: the name of Jesus and the name of God.
Since Easter our liturgical readings have been drawing abundantly from the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, which describe what happened with the Apostles and the first Community of Believers right after Jesus' Death and Resurrection, and especially after Pentecost. The Apostles, who were such cowards at the time of the Passion, now filled with the Holy Spirit, speak publicly and forcefully in the name of Jesus, and perform miracles in His name. When they are forbidden to do so, they answer that they must obey God rather than men.
Now, there is something noteworthy at the beginning of the reading of the Acts we just heard. The high priest and the Sanhedrin, in their dialogue with the Apostles, never mention the name of Jesus. They say "We gave you strict orders not to teach about that name..." And they add: "you want to make us responsible for that man's blood". Why this refusal on their part to use Jesus' name? -- I don't think it is only contempt or lack of respect. It is probably first of all fear or apprehension. There is power in a name; and when you use it you don't know what can happen. They don't want to believe in Jesus; but they don't seem to be absolutely sure that he is not from God.
What is a name? In all the ancient cultures, including that of Israel of course, and also in contemporary cultures that we -- wrongly -- call primitive, the name is much more than a label you put on a person. It is not only a sign of identification. It is something that expresses the very nature, the deepest identity of a person. And therefore it is very rarely used. In many of the cultures of Africa, for example, the naming ceremony, that happens a week or two after a child's birth, is something very important. The name that is then given to the child, and which is often that of an ancestor, is something that will not only express but also condition her or his whole existence. That name is something somewhat sacred, and will almost never be used. In daily life other names will be used that will correspond , for example, to the day of the week in which the child was born, or to his or her rank in the family.
In the Bible, when Moses is given the mission to free his people, he wants to know in whose name he is going to act. He knows that people will ask him: "In whose name are you doing this?". Just like the Scribes and the Doctors of the Law in the Gospel ask Jesus in whose name he is performing miracles. They cannot deny the obvious miracles, but they want to know by whose power they are performed. Now Moses receives a mysterious answer, which, as we know, is the name of Yahweh, which is not only the name of God, but "the name" above all names, the name in which all power resides.
Saint Paul, in the Epistles to the Philippians speaks about Jesus who made himself obedient unto death, and because of that the Father has risen him from the dead and has given him "the name" that is above all other names: that is the name of Kurios, the name of Yahweh.
To act in the name of a person is to use that person's power, is to share that person's identity. It is, in some way, to be transformed into that person. When Peter, a few days after Pentecost, meets a beggar who is a crippled man, he says "I don't have gold or silver to give you, but what I have I give to you: In the name of Jesus, get up and walk". And by the power of that name the crippled man is cured. And it is for that reason that the high priest wants to prevent the Apostles from acting in that name.
But since that name has become their name, because they have been transformed by acting and preaching in Jesus' name, the Apostles cannot refrain from doing it. It would be to be deprived of their own new identity. And after being flogged, the leave the Sanhedrin full of joy that they had been judged worthy of ill-treatment for the sake of the Name.
Sisters and Brothers it is in that Name that we are here assembled. Jesus said: "Whenever two or three are assembled in my name I am in the midst of them" and "Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you." He is therefore in the midst of us. He is the One who makes a community of all of us. In his name let us pray for one another and for the whole world and let us ask to have the courage to speak in His name and even to suffer, if necessary, for the sake of "the Name", which is both His and His father's Name.
Armand VEILLEUX