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Part Four
2811
In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy
God gives them—“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am
holy”
—
and although the Lord shows patience for the sake of his
name, the people turn away from the Holy One of Israel and
profane his name among the nations.
74
For this reason the just ones
of the old covenant, the poor survivors returned from exile, and
the prophets burned with passion for the name.
2812
Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and
given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his
word, and by his sacrifice.
75
This is the heart of his priestly prayer:
“Holy Father . . . for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also
may be consecrated in truth.”
76
Because he “sanctifies” his own
name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father.
77
At the end of
Christ’s Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all
names: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
78
2813
In the waters of Baptism, we have been “washed . . .
sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in
the Spirit of our God.”
79
Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole
of our life, and since “he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus,
who became for us wisdom from God, and . . . sanctification,”
80
both his glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in
us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.
By whom is God hallowed, since he is the one who hallows?
But since he said, “You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord
am holy,” we seek and ask that we who were sanctified in
Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And
we ask this daily, for we need sanctification daily, so that we
who fail daily may cleanse away our sins by being sanctified
continually. . . . We pray that this sanctification may remain
in us.
81
2814
The sanctification of his name among the nations depends
inseparably on our
life
and our
prayer:
We ask God to hallow his name, which by its own holiness
saves and makes holy all creation . . . . It is this name that
gives salvation to a lost world. But we ask that this name of
God should be hallowed in us through our actions. For God’s
74
Ezek
20:9, 14, 22, 39; cf.
Lev
19:2.
75 Cf.
Mt
1:21;
Lk
1:31;
Jn
8:28; 17:8; 17:17-19.
76
Jn
17:11, 19.
77 Cf.
Ezek
20:39; 36:20-21;
Jn
17:6.
78
Phil
2:9-11.
79
1 Cor
6:11.
80
1 Cor
1:30; cf.
1 Thess
4:7.
81 St. Cyprian,
De Dom. orat.
12: PL 4, 527A;
Lev
20:26.
2143
434
2013
2045