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The importance of God’s name
In today’s culture, we have gotten used to using the name of God a lot, but God’s name is not just any name. Referring to him is not a small matter. When Moses saw the burning bush, and God spoke to him for the first time, Moses tried to find out the name of the God that was speaking to him. God’s answer was: “‘I am’ and tell Pharaoh that ‘I am’ is sending me.” God does not reveal his name. He only expresses his true nature.
In the Jewish tradition, God’s name is not only not pronounced, it is not even written in full. In fact, in the scrolls of the Scriptures, the ancient Hebrews, instead of God’s full name, wrote what is known as the “tetragram” (four letters), made up of only consonants: YHWH, which could not be pronounced.
We Catholics, thanks to Jesus Christ, who revealed God to us as the one who is love, pronounce the word “God” without fear, but that does not mean that our respect for God and his name is any less.
Catholics are called not only to refrain from using God’s name in vain in any type of oath or promise, but we must take a more important step: the commandment to not take God’s name in vain becomes a positive call to praise God’s name, to pronounce it with love and reverence.
In fact, the Compendium of the Catechism reminds us that “one shows respect for the holy Name of God by blessing it, praising it and glorifying it. It is forbidden, therefore, to call on the name of God to justify a crime. It is also wrong to use the holy name of God in any improper way as in blasphemy which by its nature is a grave sin, curses, and unfaithfulness to promises made in the name of God.” (Compendium 447)
We live in an age in which names mean little, and in which words seem to lose their meaning. The same word “God” has been the victim of this process of a lack of reverence.
But for those of us who have faith, this should not be an excuse to neglect the respect and the love that we should have for God’s name. We love and are reverent before his name, because we believe that names do mean something.
Let us recall what St. Paul tells us in one of the most beautiful passages in his letters: “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” (Phil 2:10)
If we recognize that at Jesus’ name every knee should bend in all of creation, how will it be before God’s name, which expresses the greatness not only of the Word, but of the Trinity?
Reverence, respect, and love for God’s name are a concrete means that leads us to the love and respect of he who is behind the name, God himself. That is why the second commandment has not gone out of style nor lost its force: it is still a demand for Catholics; more so in the midst of a culture that prides itself on not holding anything sacred.
This week we celebrate the feast of St. John Mary Vianney, the French priest saint who dedicated an important part of his ministry to foster among his parishioners of Ars respect and reverence for the name of God, who in France at that time was not only pronounced in vain, but was the object of terrible blasphemies.
May this exemplary saint, who reverenced “the sweet name of God” during his life, help us through his intercession to rediscover the value of respect for God’s name.
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