Luke 2:16-21. “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus – the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”

During the eight days after the baby’s birth and the shepherds’ startling visit, Mary recollected all that had taken place in the past nine months. Then when her child was eight days old, she said “Yes” again – this time yes to the name Jesus.

A most common name – Jesus, Joshua in Hebrew – a name on the top 10 list of baby names that year. A common boy, her boy. Cute, cuddly, full of promise like every other boy, the guarantee/protector of her old-aged widowhood. But a piercing, painful name, too, every time she would utter it to call him in for supper, or tuck him in at night, or pray for him; for Jesus meant “he will save his people from their sins.” It meant a sword in his side and through her heart. Was it tempting to call him Joseph or Joachim instead? But no. She draws him tight close to her heart and whispers his name, Jesus. Yes.

There is for all of us in this name both joy and pain too, both comfort and challenge. Jesus belongs to us but he also belongs to the world. He invites us this year to hold him close, to lose ourselves in his gaze, the divine rapturous, life-affirming love of this Child, but to let him go too, and follow him to more difficult, painful places: to welcoming, healing, feeding, embracing others; to giving and sharing and serving, and finally, dying for others.

Help us, God, that we might have the same grace as Mary, that we will ‘Yes’ to his name too, every time that we say it.