[00:00] Today we celebrate the feast of a very great saint, St. Bernadine of Siena. He was born in 1380 in a town called Massa in Italy. His father was the governor of that town and his family raised Bernadine with a great love

[00:33] of our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And Bernadine was especially taken up by the virtue of charity and also of chastity. When he was a young man, the other students would always say, "You know, you better be quiet, here comes Bernadine," and if they ever said anything that was disrespectful or was

[01:04] not quite pure, Bernadine would completely blush and to the point where he felt so uncomfortable that even the ones that would say the words would also blush themselves because he would convict them of what it is that they said. And then he was very, they say he was very meek, he was very kind, but any rude language

[01:36] would make him like furious basically. In fact, one time when he was in the town, there was a prominent figure in the town who was telling a rude, disgusting joke and Bernadine in his presence and Bernadine, St. Bernadine walked up and just gave him a gigantic slap in the face. And he wouldn't put up with any rude conversation, especially if it went against purity.

[02:13] So, and I remember when I first entered the friary and I was visiting home and there was one of my friends who wasn't really practicing any faith and he was also like talking, I didn't slap him in the face, but I was remembering the different saints that did that. And I said, "You know what, if I was a saint, I'd probably slap you in the face right now." And he just stopped in his tracks and like, "What do you mean if you were a saint?"

[02:44] I said, "Well, one day you'll figure it out." But anyways, St. Bernadine of Siena was always on fire for anything to do with our Lord, Our Lady and the virtues. He became a friar. He became a preacher. But the first, but they didn't know whether he was going to be a great preacher because of the fact that he had such a raspy and quiet voice that they thought, "OK, there's no way

[03:18] that he's going to be a preacher." But on the day that it was obligatory for him to preach through the intercession of Our Lady, he became, or his voice became very loud and melodic and they realized that God had worked a miracle because every time he preached, he would reach hearts. He would be able to convert many sinners and he would expound the truths of the faith

[03:53] and especially the thing that he always preached on, which was the holy name of Jesus. But not just the holy name of Jesus, the holy name of Jesus and the holy name of Mary. St. Bernadine would enter a town where he was going to preach at. And back then it was common that you would preach in the town square because the crowds that would come, it was like they're, I guess, not that they didn't have that many forms

[04:23] of entertainment. So when a preacher would come to town and since everyone was of the same faith, they would all congregate around the preacher. So he was preaching and he would always bring the standard of the holy name. And I'm not sure if it has it on here, oh yeah, if you can see it, it is IHS. That comes from the Franciscan order that was made by St. Bernadine of Siena.

[04:54] You see that often on many different things, the IHS. And that means Jesu, Y is basically a Y, a Greek I. So IHS means Jesu Hominum Salvator, Jesus Savior of man and or mankind. So St. Bernadine of Siena would always hold this up. Every time he said the name of Jesus, he would hold up his monogram and he would say Jesus,

[05:29] nod his head and show that symbol. And then he would also have a flag. He would enter the town and where he was going to be preaching at the podium, he would put a flag with this sign on it or the monogram and he would preach on the holy name of Jesus. And how much can you preach on the holy name of Jesus? We can say that the holy name of Jesus is powerful. But until we understand why it is powerful, then we might, you know, it might escape us

[06:04] exactly how much we should honor and use the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, for centuries, demons have fled. People have been cured and people have been converted to our Lord. The name of Jesus carries a power because the name of Jesus is connected to He who became man, to God Himself.

[06:38] And it is in this name that many will be saved. However, for us, we have to know who Jesus is first. The reason why demons flee isn't just because the letters of the name, but it's because it's attached to someone who they know. And there was a case where these Jewish rabbis were going to try to exorcise a demon and

[07:10] whatever they did, they couldn't get the demon out. So they ended up using, they thought, well, St. Paul or that Paul guy, he can do that. So we'll use what, we'll do what he does. So they used the name of Jesus and St. Paul and the demons attacked or the demons or the demons through the person attacked them, ripped their shirts off them and chased them out of the house and yelled after them, "Jesus we know and Paul we know, we don't know who

[07:43] you are." And so in other words, it's not just the name, but it is in first of all, knowing the name and in being devoted and practicing the things that the name represents, which are the commandments of God and the Christian faith. We know of many instances where a demon couldn't be exorcised out of somebody until finally

[08:14] the name of Jesus was said by an angel. We have that case of the exorcist, the young boy who had dabbled with the Ouija board and when his aunt passed away, he was doing it himself and he became possessed. And even though he received the Eucharist, he received the Sacrament of Confession, the Jesuit priests who were trying to perform the exorcism on him or who were performing

[08:49] the exorcism on him could not get the demon out and the demon himself said, "There's only one way that you're going to be able to get me out," and eventually they found out what that was because St. Michael the Archangel had to come down and he actually possessed the boy too and spoke the word Jesus in Latin and commanded him as St. Michael the Archangel to leave the boy in our Lord's name and the seminarians who were praying in the seminary

[09:26] church or chapel, they confirmed that the devil had left and that St. Michael had come because they all witnessed St. Michael the Archangel high above them in the church. So the name of Jesus is powerful, but at the same time, we can't just presume that if we're not living the life that we should live, that the name of Jesus is just going to be effective immediately. No, we have to do, and it is very powerful, but we have to live the faith before we can

[10:03] see that power. So let us remember St. Bernadine of Siena. He died in 1444. He was 64 years old and it only took four years to six years for him to be canonized because of the holiness of his life and the dedication, his dedication to his mission of preaching. He spent hours and hours preaching weekly, traveling on foot from town to town, and he

[10:42] became so, I guess, respected and honored even by people, towns that were not even practicing the faith at first, that all these towns were competing against each other in petitions to the Pope to make Bernadine their own personal bishop of the place. So he was well respected and honored and where he went, people would listen to his preaching

[11:13] and they would have conversion of heart. And he always prayed, ever taught the doctrine behind the holy name of Jesus, and he was always faithful to holding up his monogram, Jesu Hominum Salvatorem, Jesus, Savior of Man. The name which is above all other names, that in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth,

[11:46] every tongue proclaim Him, every knee shall bend, because the name of Jesus is the name of Him who is both God and man, who came and suffered and died for us, who gained through His suffering the salvation for us all, the ability for each one of us to share in the divine life and to become perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.