Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Josep Martinez-Cubero
The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, January 1, 2025
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One of the experiences most present for me in the monastery is that of seasons and new beginnings. We are reminded of this every single day throughout the year. We live the seasons of the day- morning, afternoon, evening, night, sanctified, of course, by the Daily Office, each prayer with its own character serving as a pillar to mark each section of the day, reminding us to begin again, and to stay in the now. We live the seasons of the week. The beginning of the week, which for us is Tuesday, feels very different to the end of the week. On Tuesdays, I feel rested and energetic, and ready to face whatever may present itself. On Sundays, I’m usually tired and very much looking forward to leisure and rest.
We live the seasons of the liturgical year- Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany followed by Ordinary time, Lent, Easter, Ascensiontide, Pentecost followed by the longer Ordinary time. We seem to experience and give meaning to the events of these liturgical seasons according to the season of the year during which they are celebrated. I’m sure, for instance, that we would be doing things in a slightly different way if we were to celebrate the Resurrection in the fall or in the dead of winter, or Christmas in the summer as people do in the southern hemisphere.
The seasons of the year are very different from one another here in the Hudson Valley. During the spring, our grounds explode with color and beauty. The air is crisp and all the parks and mountains in the region seem to be calling us to come for a visit. Summers for me usually mean lots of gardening and looking forward to a much slower pace during the month of August when the guesthouse is closed. It’s usually very hot and humid around here making us slow down.
The end of summer and beginning of autumn bring a burst of renewed energy to the monastery. Our guesthouse reopens for the fall. We look forward to seeing our regular guests as well as meeting the new people that will come to experience a retreat here for the first time. The end of autumn brings with it a reminder of the end of earthly life, and the remembrance of those who have gone before us with the celebrations of All Saints and All Souls.
Winters are gray and cold. There are several snowfalls during the season. At the beginning of the season, we are celebrating Christmas. I’m always quite busy doing all things music. Then, as it will happen after today, things become very quiet around here. The guesthouse will close and the community will go into deep silence during our annual eight-day retreat. After all the December celebrations, energy, and the welcoming of guests coming and going, we all very much look forward to the silence and everything stopping. It will be the occasion for spending quality time with God.
We are also aware of the seasons of monastic vocation- postulancy, novitiate, initial profession, life profession- and how these seasons intermingle with the seasons of our own life- youth, middle age, old age. We observe the flourishing of new vocations and the diminishment of older brothers day by day.
Many new beginnings in life are accompanied by being named something new or by our taking on a new name. In marriage, for instance, people often decide to adopt their spouse’s surname, or add it to their full name. At profession a monk has the option of choosing a new name, and this action very clearly marks the beginning of something new, a new season in life. I have many former students who have come out as nonbinary or transgender and have changed their names to one better suited to their new identity and new beginning.
Names and naming are very important in the stories of Scripture. We read about God using names and name changes to establish relationship, identity, belonging and new beginnings. In the book of Genesis, God names things as God creates them, and then God names the first human: “Adam,” who is created out of adamah, the earth. After God creates and names the human, God asks Adam to name all of the animals. Later on, in that book Abram becomes Abraham and Sarai becomes Sarah for their new covenant with God. Jacob wrestles the angel and is named Israel. In the Book of Exodus, Moses is so named because he was drawn from the water. In the New Testament, Simon becomes Peter, the Rock upon which the Church is built, and Saul becomes Paul when his life is transformed.
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Name. It is the celebration of the great mystery of that which is beyond naming taking a name for our sake. In the reading we heard from the Book of Numbers, which is one of the most beautiful passages in all of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Holy Name of God is placed on the people as a priestly blessing. “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD’S face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up the divine countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put my Name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” And since, as Saint Paul says to the Galatians, we are heirs, the Holy Name of God is placed on us too, and the face of God is meant to shine upon us. Let us ponder for a moment the enormity and the beauty of that as we begin a new year!
The word translated in the passage as “LORD” is the unspeakable Hebrew Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, or the letters (YHVH) pronounced by Christians as Yahweh, but never uttered by Jews. When the Name had to be spoken, it was replaced with “Elohim” (the strong God), or “Adonai” (the Lord) or “Hashem” (the Name). In the Bible we see it most often referred to as LORD in capitalized form. LORD, in this sense, is a way of pointing to what is beyond words and cannot be named.
Many mystics believe that we carry the name of God on every breath. That is why it cannot be spoken, because it is the sound of breath. The spirit of God is within us and around us. Every time we take a breath during our chanting of prayers in this church we are breathing in the spirit of God and that same spirit comes out manifested in song, in beauty. So today’s feast presents one of the many paradoxes of the Christian faith- the tension between what can and cannot be named, between saying and unsaying.
The name Jesus is a translation of the Greek Iesous, which is itself a transliteration of the Aramaic Yeshua, a shortened version of the Hebrew Yehoshua or, in English, Joshua. The most literal meaning of Yehoshua is “Yaweh is a saving-cry.” Cry in this sense means shout. In other words, the meaning of the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus the Christ is “Yahweh shouts salvation.” Eight days ago we commemorated and celebrated the paradox of the Incarnation- the Unspeakable is spoken. Today, the Unnameable takes on a name and shouts salvation.
In first-century Aramaic there was no word for “salvation.” Salvation was understood as being made alive. It concerned the whole person. To become whole is to be transformed from within into our true identity, our deepest freedom that only comes from God’s infinite love for us. A love that is always present, always meets us where we are, and always works with what is. We come from LOVE, and we are made to love one another as the LOVE that is beyond all that is loves us.
So, as we begin again a new year, I invite you to return to your breath. Breathe prayerfully, in silent awe and humble gratitude because the Nameless and the Named are One within us and around us in immense love. There is a lot of darkness in this world right now, and I am convinced more and more that the higher solution, the best way to help is through the kind of prayer and meditation that takes us to the level of consciousness where all things resolve into harmony and where we can develop the will toward righteousness and goodness. The present darkness of this world will never overcome the light. Never! May we all be filled with joy and peace, yes, but also with the hope that keeps us reminded that sometimes, courage and perseverance count more. Most importantly, may our whole being be present to the LOVE that surpasses all understanding. Happy New Year! ¡Que así sea en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo! ~Amen+