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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

in the Apocalypse of John it is written that Christ will reveal His new Name, He himself says it, does this mean that He will no longer be called Jesus?

Answer from the priest

Dear son,

1. It is advisable to reread the entire verse in which you find the affirmation you reported: “I will place the winner as a pillar in the temple of my God and he will never go out of it again. I will engrave on him the name of my God and the name  of the city of my God, of the new Jerusalem which descends from Heaven, from my God, together with my new name” (Ap 3, 12).

2. From these words of the Lord we understand that three names will be written on the foreheads of the elects.

First of all, the name of God whose adopted sons they will have become: “And I saw: here is the Lamb standing on Mount Sion, and with him one hundred and forty-four thousand people, who had his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads” (Ap 7,1).

3. Then the name of the city of God will be written, of the new Jerusalem that they sought during their lifetime.

As Abraham “was waiting for the city with solid foundations, whose architect and builder is God himself” (Heb 11,10) so too did his descendants in faith.

4. Finally, the name of Jesus Christ, their redeemer, will be imprinted.

This name is called new because it is the name of the triumphant and victorious Jesus to whom the Father, following his humiliations, gave a name that is above any other name.

Indeed, Christ “humbled himself by making himself obedient even to death and death on the cross. For this God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend in the heavens, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim: Jesus Christ is Lord!, to glory of God the Father” (Phil 2,8-11).

5. Therefore the three names (symbol of belonging ) which will be written on the victor show him/her as God’s and Christ’s own possession  and as a full member and citizen of the heavenly city.

Wishing you to obtain all these three names of divine glory, I assure you of my prayers and I bless you.

Father Angelo

Translated by Rossella Silvestri