But it is often in the Readings or gospels.
There are catholic or christian hymns that use the Name Yahweh
Is it a sin to call God the Father “Yahweh”?
Unless your lectionary is using the Jerusalem Bible, it should not be using the Tetragrammaton…at least based on my diminishing memory and knowledge of current English language lectionary options. Where exactly are you encountering it? And besides you specify the Gospels…but the only times the Divine Name is used in the Gospels, it is because Jesus is using it in Greek and so that usage is rendered into the vernacular and the form is never pronounced by us in Hebrew.
The usage concerning calling out to God in the Passion narrative in Matthew and Mark is not the divine Tetragrammaton…it is precisely a prescribed circumlocution in Hebrew and Aramaic respectively. In Jesus’ time, the only one who would have pronounced the divine Tetragrammaton was the high priest, after having entered the holy of holies, on the Day of Atonement.
As for hymns, the directive is very clear:
- In liturgical celebrations, in songs and prayers the name of God in the form of the tetragrammaton, YHWH, is neither to be used or pronounced.
- For the translation of the Biblical text in modern languages, destined for liturgical usage of the Church, what is already prescribed by n. 41 of the Instruction Liturgiam authenticam is to be followed; that is, the divine tetragrammaton is to be rendered by the equivalent of Adonai/Kyrios: “Lord”, “Signore”, “Seigneur”, “Herr”, “Señor”, etc.
- In translating, in the liturgical context, texts in which are present, one after the other, either the Hebrew term Adonai or the tetragrammaton YHWH, Adonai is to be translated “Lord” and the form “God” is to be used for the tetragrammaton YHWH, similar to what happens in the Greek translation of the Septuagint and in the Latin translation of the Vulgate.
I do not understand the persistence in forum threads about asking if something of this order “is a sin or not.”
This is a directive to all Catholics from the Pope. He communicated it via the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which has in turn communicated this document to every bishop of the world – and it is to be implemented, actually have been implemented, in their dioceses by the parishes and by all the faithful…almost a decade ago.
This directive from the Pope was in 2008 and the compliance was to be immediate. We have been living it for years. I vividly remember all the discussion preceding the announcement of the Pope’s decision…in the academy and well beyond.
The only appropriate response, really, is not to debate whether it is sinful not to comply with the Holy Father’s directive or not…the response is very simple: to comply with the directive and implement it. The request is not that hard. I am stunned that it would not be universally known, especially by those professing to be close to the teaching of the Pope and of the dicasteries of the Holy See and following their various pronouncements.
In my priesthood or as an academic, I had never used the divine Tetragrammaton, except as an exercise in philology in one lecture per course and use the occasion to remind my students never to pronounce it and never to write it in Hebrew or transcript for anything in my class or that I would see.
Knowing the underlying theology of the sacred authors and of the era, especially of later Second Temple Period Judaism, which was the scope of my specialization when I did my biblical degree, I would never use the Tetragrammaton in my private prayer…the thought would never occur to me.
I am very surprised that it would be problematic for anyone to comply with the directive.
Finally, to answer your last question: The Divine Name is not simply unique to the First Person of the Trinity. It is proper to all Three Persons, which is why Jesus correctly evokes it when he states, in John’s Gospel: “I solemnly declare it, before Abraham came to be: I AM.” He uses the evocation elsewhere…it is, at essence, the Divine Name.
