As I was catching up on the Office of Readings for the past week, I stumbled across this beautiful quote by Saint Gregory of Nyssa:
“If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness,
we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act
and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name.
For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say
but by what we do in life.”From a Treatise on Christian Perfection
Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. IV. 19th Week in Ordinary Time.
I immediately loved that line “and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name.” We bear Christ’s name in two ways. First, we call ourselves “Christians,” and as church (the Bride of Christ), we have “taken” His name. And, like any bride, we ought to bear our new name proudly for all to see, because we are (hopefully) madly in love with our Bridegroom. We have chosen to wed ourselves to the living God and His name has become ours!
And there’s more … we not only share His name, but if we are truly invested in this relationship of love with our God, His very life should become our life as well. This Christian journey is a way of becoming one with God, allowing ourselves to be so deeply loved by Him that we desire to assimilate His characteristics and learn how He thinks, speaks, acts, loves. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI stated profoundly, “[Mercy] is the very name of God,” and it is this name that we have taken on and have the responsibility to represent worthily. In other words, we are called to be so joined to Christ, the Divine Mercy, that we personify Him in the world.
And this is the second way we bear His name. Once we have gotten to the point of losing our heart completely to this Lover God and taken on not only His name, but also His way of living, it is only natural for us to want to share His goodness with all those we meet, to proclaim His love from the rooftops. We ought to be so in love with Him and so united to Him, that we long for everyone else to recognize and acknowledge how great He is! And so we reveal our Divine Lover to those around us by being His Heart in the world, bringing Him to others in our words and actions, loving the way He does. In doing this we bear His name, Mercy — living it out in our workplaces, local communities, churches, families, and society at large.
Returning to the quote from St. Gregory, if we truly love the Lord, we will yearn to do whatever it takes to stay close to Him, showing our faithfulness to Him as we “refrain from anything wicked,” but also in seeking to do what pleases Him. As the Scriptures tell us,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
Mt. 7:21“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command?”
Lk. 6:46
And what is the will of the Father? What does the Lord command? Love me with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength, and all of your mind, and remember that you are precious in my eyes, so that you may love others as I have loved you. (See Lk. 10:47, Is. 43:4, Jn. 15:12.)
Let us never forget that being Christian is not just about saying or doing the right things, but rather existing for the sake of Love and letting this Love inform all our actions. The Lord confirms this in the book of Isaiah: “… this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me …” (29:13). In other words, God isn’t content when we simply follow all the rules and give Him lip service — He wants our hearts. We cannot compartmentalize our faith into a neat little checklist, we must instead embrace it for what it actually is: a passionate love story, an intimate relationship with our Creator God who loves us “with an everlasting love.” It is only through an active consent to and continual participation in this immense love that we will become “worthy bearers” of His name.
This week, join me in asking for a renewed awareness of the vow of fidelity we have made as Christians: those who have taken the Lord’s name, entered into a personal relationship with Him, promised to become one with Him and love Him forever. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother (the first to bear Him to others), may our love of God only increase, spurring us to bring Him with haste to all those around us, by living the way He lives and loving the way He loves.
“You are in our midst, O Lord,
your name we bear… ”
Jer. 14:9
