Wednesday, January 3, 2024

The Most Holy Name of Jesus --Luis de León

Among all His other titles, the name "Jesus" [יֵשׁוּעַ] is Christ's proper name and the name which contains the meaning of all His other names [Sapling, Face(s) of God, Way, Pastor, Mountain, Father of the Future Age, Arm of God, King of God, Prince of Peace, Husband, Son of God, Beloved]. The name Jesus is Christ's proper name also because it is not a nickname but rather His birth-name, His given name, and the name which brings Him absorbed in its being; because His Christ being is Jesus, because everything that is in Christ is salvation and health. Which, furthermore, Christ anted that it should be His proper name, to declare His love to us. That is why He did not choose any other of His titles to name Himself from those which do not look to us, having so many greatnesses in Himself as is proper that He should have, in Whom, as Saint Paul says (Col. 2:9), resides as in a seat and as if corporally, every divine weath; rather he chose for His proper name that one which tells the goods which He does in us and the health which He gives us, most clearly showing the much that He loves us and esteems us, since He does not value nor make into a name except that of our health...

Jesus is His being; Jesus are His works, and Jesus is His name, that is, pity and health.

Christ willed to take health, which is Jesus, as His proper name, because health is not just one good, but rather a universe of innumerable goods. Because it is in health that one has powers, agility in movement, good appearance, agreeable speech, the complete discursiveness of reason, and the good exercise of all of the parts and of all of the works of man. Health contains within itself good hearing, good seeing, and success and industry. Such that health is a pregnancy of all goods, and thus, since Christ is truly this pregnancy, that is why this name is the one which is most fitting to Him. Because Christ, as in His divinity is the idea and the treasure and the fountain of all goods, likewise according to His humanity He has all of the remedies and all of the medicines and all of the healths which are necessary to everyone.

(Plinthos translation.)

Fray Luis de León, Obras Completas I, ed. Felix Garcia, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1957, pp. 779, 780 and 781. (The link is to a newer edition of the text.)

P.S. Jesus's name means salvation. In Latin the word for salvation, salus, means health.

Jesus Christus nostra salus

quod reclamat omnis malus, nobis sui memoriam dedit in panis hostiam. O quam sanctus panis iste, quem tu praebes Jesu Christe, caro cibus sacramentum, quo non est maius inventum. Hoc est donum sanctitatis charitasque Deitatis, virtus et Eucharistia, communionis gratia. Ave Deitatis forma, Dei unionis norma, in te quisque delectatur, qui in fide speculatur. Non solus panis, sed Deus, homo liberator meus, qui in cruce pependisti et in carne defecisti. Non augetur consecratus, nec consumptus fit mutatus, nec divisus in fractura, plenus Deus in statura. Esca digna angelorum, charitasque lux sanctorum, lex moderna comprobavit, quod antiqua figuravit. Salutare medicamen, peccatorum relevamen pasce nos, a malis leva, duc nos ubi lux longeva. Caro cibus, sanguis potus, manet tamen Christus totus, huic sit laus et gloria in seculorum secula.