9th Sunday Year A - Homily 2

Homily 2 – 2011 

The Gospel today referred to people doing things in the name of Jesus; or, rather, claiming to do things – fairly remarkable things – in the name of Jesus.  Yet, Jesus said of these people: No way! I don’t even know you!  What’s going on? What did he mean?

Before we look more closely at what Jesus might have meant, it could be a good idea to look at what we mean, when we say: In the name of Jesus.  It’s a phrase we use a lot, particularly in our prayers.  You probably said it as you entered the church and made the Sign of the Cross over yourself.   We began the Mass as the community we are, proclaiming: In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.   Today’s Mass will finish with the Prayer after Communion, which in its turn will finish with the words: We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord; to which you will all dutifully answer: Amen.  What do we mean when we say: In the name of …?  As you said it, entering the church, what did you mean?

From what Jesus said: I don’t even know you, it would seem that, whatever we mean, it isn’t always true.  When is it true? And how can you tell?

Just before today’s passage, which brings to its conclusion the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that the way to work out the difference between when it’s true and when it’s not true – the way to determine who really is the true prophet or the false prophet is by their fruits: By their their fruits you will know them.  But which fruits?  Certainly it’s not results; it’s not outcomes; it’s not success.  Today’s Gospel supposes that some people were casting out devils successfully, and working miracles successfully – but not, despite their claims, in the name of Jesus.  So what are the fruits that we look for?

Today’s Gospel offers an answer.  The fruits are changed, transformed lifestyle, the lifestyle of those who, as Jesus says, listen to these words of mine and act on them.  What, specifically, are these words of Jesus?  They are simply what Matthew had listed in the Sermon on the Mount which today’s passage brings to an end.  The lifestyle?  Mercy, purity of heart, peace-making; change of heart; love, love of enemies, consistent love – like God’s love that is indiscriminate, reaching out to the good and the bad, the honest and dishonest alike.

In the name of Jesus.  It’s a funny phrase – where name refers to what identifies someone, but in the sense of what someone is, more than who someone is.  We tend to understand name as the reverse, telling us who people are, rather than what they are.   We act in the name of Jesus to the extent that we become just like Jesus is, we are acting just like Jesus acts.  It is a “more or less” reality.

As we truly mature, we allow ourselves to be changed, to be transformed, to become ever more Christ-like, ever more christened.  When we were baptized, we were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son  and of the Holy Spirit.  More accurately, we were baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son  and of the Holy Spirit.  We were changed.  We entered a whole new world – becoming children of God; or, perhaps better, infant children of God.  The task across life has been to grow up, allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us, through the choices and decisions we have made, to become ever more christened, ever more Christlike: to live, and act and pray in the same way as Jesus.  Hopefully, we have become, increasingly, one with the deepest “what” of Jesus, more and more identified with the unique Jesus, more and more living, acting and praying in the name of Jesus.