First-name basis?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DanteAlighieri
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DanteAlighieri

Guest
Caveat: I don’t intend this to be accusatory or inflammatory. Please trust that I have the best of intentions here.

Ok, am I the only person who feels uncomfortable referring to the Son of the Almighty merely by His first name? This has always seemed a bit familiar on one hand, and on the other it just sound so…I dunno…charismatic.

Maybe that’s the wrong word. Bear with me; I’m thinking out loud here.

I guess it just doesn’t seem reverent enough or deferential enough. I mean, He is the King of Kings, and we don’t normally address human kings by their first name.

I don’t have a problem with “Lord Jesus” – I use that one all the time because it is more comfortably reverent. “Lord” works, too. Or “Christ”, since that’s a title and not a name.

Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who feel that it’s a sign of our brotherhood with Him to call Him by his first name. I frankly think that, linquistically and intellectually, this diminishes His majesty. I do not deny that He is our brother, but that is further down on the list than the fact that He is our Creator, our Lord, and our Redeemer. You know?

Again, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers with this. I’m just wondering what you all think.

Am I alone on this? Am I insane?

Peace,
Dante
 
For me, one of the most thrilling things about the Savior (like how I avoided His name?) is that, even though He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He desires to be intimate with us. Intimates use first names.

That said, most often it’s “Dear Lord” for me.

Betsy
 
I don’t have a problem hearing it said, but I do find myself having difficulty saying it. I am more likely to refer to Him as Christ or our Lord than as Jesus, unless it is in a pre-existing prayer. (Hail Mary, Fatima Prayer, etc.)

I don’t feel like others are doing something wrong when they say it but I do find myself hesitating or even lisping(I don’t otherwise have a lisp) when I have tried to refer to Our Lord by his first name only.
 
The other side of the coin to reverence and deference is intimacy and friendship, though, and I don’t think they are incompatible…

Your query immediately called to mind this quote from St. Josemaria Escriva:
Don’t be afraid to call our Lord by his name — Jesus — and to tell him that you love him.
Click to expand...
Margaret
 
Traditionally Catholics refrained from saying “Jesus” out of respect for the Most Holy Name (and some didn’t like having to bob their head all the time)

I use “Christ” or “Our Lord”.
 
Red_Meg said:
The other side of the coin to reverence and deference is intimacy and friendship, though, and I don’t think they are incompatible…

Your query immediately called to mind this quote from St. Josemaria Escriva:

Margaret
Click to expand...
A good quote. And I totally agree about the intimacy, but we share intimacy with parents and do not call them by their names (except in strange cases; I sometimes call my mom by her first name when she doesn’t hear me, which is increasingly often these days).

Also, the Apostles, who were more intimate with Christ than any of us could hope to be in this life, always address Him as “Lord” or “Teacher” in the Scriptures, enough so that it seems to establish a tendency to do so.

Anyhow, thanks for the responses; at least now I know I’m not the only one who feels kind of iffy about it. 🙂

Peace,
Dante
 
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling Our Lord by His first name 🙂 He is our King but He also wants us to know Him in a personal, intimate way. Not distantly. It’s possible to be close to Him yet still very reverent…

consider the Saints… they called Him “Jesus”, some even called Him “my Jesus” 😉 I think it’s beautiful!

God bless~
 
I have no problem with calling him by name. I don’t know if it’s my protestant background or personal preference. Either way, I think it’s ok. After all, how many kings would die for their people?
 
DanteAlighieri said:
Caveat: I don’t intend this to be accusatory or inflammatory. Please trust that I have the best of intentions here.

Ok, am I the only person who feels uncomfortable referring to the Son of the Almighty merely by His first name? This has always seemed a bit familiar on one hand, and on the other it just sound so…I dunno…charismatic.

Maybe that’s the wrong word. Bear with me; I’m thinking out loud here.

I guess it just doesn’t seem reverent enough or deferential enough. I mean, He is the King of Kings, and we don’t normally address human kings by their first name.

I don’t have a problem with “Lord Jesus” – I use that one all the time because it is more comfortably reverent. “Lord” works, too. Or “Christ”, since that’s a title and not a name.

Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who feel that it’s a sign of our brotherhood with Him to call Him by his first name. I frankly think that, linquistically and intellectually, this diminishes His majesty. I do not deny that He is our brother, but that is further down on the list than the fact that He is our Creator, our Lord, and our Redeemer. You know?

Again, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers with this. I’m just wondering what you all think.

Am I alone on this? Am I insane?

Peace,
Dante
Click to expand...

No,you are not insane 🙂 That used to be my position - it seemed too familiar. I no longer think this, because I think it’s important to distinguish between:​

  • the Saviour before His Glorification, in “the days of His flesh”, when He was subject to pain & death
and
  • The Saviour Glorified, Victorious over death, sin & the devil, & Ascended to the throne of His Glory.
That doesn’t mean he was not the Christos, the Messiah, while on earth - but He was, in accord with one Jewish idea, Messiah-in-waiting. He “came into His Kingdom” only when Glorified.

Actually, things are more complicated (of course !) - for John, He is enthroned when crucified; the different Evangelists have different theologies of the One Gospel. That’s just BTW.

So before (& at the risk of over-simplifying), He is Jesus - later, he is Jesus the Christ. The distinction is not absolute, because the coming Kingdom is in principle present before the time of the Cross. The “mighty works” of Jesus, & His own Identity, are Messianic works; they are infallible signs that His Father’s Kingdom cannot not come. His works before His Crucifixion are causes of the presence of the Kingdom they signify; it is present* and* future.

This makes naming Him difficult. FWIW, His having a (fairly common) name is a reminder of His unreserved & total solidarity with us; the OT redeemers were “kinsman redeemers” - so here too: He is for us, because He is one of us.
 
DanteAlighieri said:
Caveat: I don’t intend this to be accusatory or inflammatory. Please trust that I have the best of intentions here.

Ok, am I the only person who feels uncomfortable referring to the Son of the Almighty merely by His first name? This has always seemed a bit familiar on one hand, and on the other it just sound so…I dunno…charismatic.

Maybe that’s the wrong word. Bear with me; I’m thinking out loud here.

I guess it just doesn’t seem reverent enough or deferential enough. I mean, He is the King of Kings, and we don’t normally address human kings by their first name.

I don’t have a problem with “Lord Jesus” – I use that one all the time because it is more comfortably reverent. “Lord” works, too. Or “Christ”, since that’s a title and not a name.

Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who feel that it’s a sign of our brotherhood with Him to call Him by his first name. I frankly think that, linquistically and intellectually, this diminishes His majesty. I do not deny that He is our brother, but that is further down on the list than the fact that He is our Creator, our Lord, and our Redeemer. You know?

Again, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers with this. I’m just wondering what you all think.

Am I alone on this? Am I insane?

Peace,
Dante
Click to expand...
If that were the case the Church would forbid us to use only Jesus. It does not. Therefore the Church disagrees with you. There is no problem in just using the name Jesus.
Every priest I have ever listened to in homilies or simply in conversion has used Jesus.
 
I think that definitely Our Blessed Lord’s name is tossed around too easily these days. Which is why traditionally we call Jesus (bow head) “Our Lord” “Our Blessed Lord” etc. My grandma sometimes refers to Jesus as “The Sacred Heart”, even in contexts outside of that pious devotion.

Same thing when we refer to Mother Mary as the “Blessed Mother” (my favorite title of hers) or Our Blessed Lady, etc.

But there are times too, when I am in temptation, where I will cry simply “Jesus!” or “O my Jesus!” imploring His grace to resist.
 
thistle said:
If that were the case the Church would forbid us to use only Jesus. It does not. Therefore the Church disagrees with you. There is no problem in just using the name Jesus.
Every priest I have ever listened to in homilies or simply in conversion has used Jesus.
Click to expand...
Whoa, settle down there! 🙂

First of all, I didn’t say it was immoral or heretical to call Christ by His first name. We’re talking about a matter of personal preference here. Thus, the Church would not likely weigh in on the issue anyway.

Besides, your logic is faulty. That the Church does not ban something does not mean the Church “disagrees” with those who don’t want to do it. For example, the Church also does not explicitly forbid calling Jesus Christ “J.C.”, but I think we can all agree that this is waaay too familiar.

Peace,
Dante
 
DanteAlighieri said:
Whoa, settle down there! 🙂

First of all, I didn’t say it was immoral or heretical to call Christ by His first name. We’re talking about a matter of personal preference here. Thus, the Church would not likely weigh in on the issue anyway.

Besides, your logic is faulty. That the Church does not ban something does not mean the Church “disagrees” with those who don’t want to do it. For example, the Church also does not explicitly forbid calling Jesus Christ “J.C.”, but I think we can all agree that this is waaay too familiar.

Peace,
Dante
Click to expand...
You are the one missing the point. For some personal reason you have deemed it not reverent to use the name Jesus on its own when referring to him. That of course is rubbish but if that’s your personal preference that’s up to you. However, don’t come on here implying that nobody should use the name Jesus on its own when referring to him because you are WRONG on this matter. Stop pushing your personal preference down our throats.
 
thistle said:
You are the one missing the point. For some personal reason you have deemed it not reverent to use the name Jesus on its own when referring to him. That of course is rubbish but if that’s your personal preference that’s up to you. However, don’t come on here implying that nobody should use the name Jesus on its own when referring to him because you are WRONG on this matter. Stop pushing your personal preference down our throats.
Click to expand...
Wow, I really did not get the impression that was what the OP was doing. It seemed to me that it was about explaining an aspect of his/her spirituality and asking if anyone else had that view. It was not referred to as official Church teaching and it did not sound to me like the OP was trying to change anyone else’s behavior. Now I have not read many of their other posts. It could be you have some history with this poster that would cause you to believe they are trying to push something “down our throats.”
 
thistle said:
You are the one missing the point. For some personal reason you have deemed it not reverent to use the name Jesus on its own when referring to him. That of course is rubbish but if that’s your personal preference that’s up to you. However, don’t come on here implying that nobody should use the name Jesus on its own when referring to him because you are WRONG on this matter. Stop pushing your personal preference down our throats.
Click to expand...
I apologize if I’ve offended you by bringing this up. I was not trying to push anything down anyone’s throat; I was merely asking if anyone else felt the same way. This wasn’t about being right or wrong. If you will re-read my original post, I think you’ll see that I was very clear that I don’t wish to offend or accuse or place demands on anyone.

Peace,
Dante
 
Chiltepin said:
Wow, I really did not get the impression that was what the OP was doing. It seemed to me that it was about explaining an aspect of his/her spirituality and asking if anyone else had that view. It was not referred to as official Church teaching and it did not sound to me like the OP was trying to change anyone else’s behavior. Now I have not read many of their other posts. It could be you have some history with this poster that would cause you to believe they are trying to push something “down our throats.”
Click to expand...
Thank you - that’s exactly what I wanted to do. As far as I can recall, I have no history with thistle, so I don’t know if there’s a reason he or she would be predisposed to believe this.

I’m a nice guy, really. 🙂

Peace,
Dante
 
DanteAlighieri said:
Thank you - that’s exactly what I wanted to do. As far as I can recall, I have no history with thistle, so I don’t know if there’s a reason he or she would be predisposed to believe this.

I’m a nice guy, really. 🙂

Peace,
Dante
Click to expand...
I’ve been feeling unwell the past two days so I’ve been grumpy (and not just with you). Sorry for my abrasive comments.
 
“Dante” I think that your desire to show profound reverence for Our Lord Jesus… is wonderful. In this day and age… it seems… that less and less people are doing so. In fact, just last evening… on “Sunday Night Live”… the topic of Fr. Groeschel’s program was “devotion to Jesus, Our Lord”.

In prayer, I tend to refer to Him as “Lord Jesus”… or “my Lord, Jesus”… or something like that. But it IS a good thing to invoke the Holy Name of Jesus… because Our Lord’s Name is a powerful prayer.

In John 15:15… Jesus Himself says… “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his Master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from My Father.”

You might also wish to remember the inscription on the Divine Mercy image… which Our Lord Himself, gave to St. Faustina.

❤️ “Jesus, I trust in You” ❤️

Hope this helps. God bless.
 
This just came up in a conversation with a friend of mine.

Referring to Jesus as Christ or Lord is very different from referring to him as Jesus.

In part, it’s distancing. Saying “I love the Lord” puts him “out there.” Saying “I love Jesus” is much more intimate.

But as we talked we agreed there was an embarrassment factor in saying “I love Jesus.” It makes you very vulnerable to say that in front of someone else. It makes that relationship very clear, very real, and very intimate.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top