XXVIII. A further implication of Jesus’ prayer – Hallowed by Thy Name – is that God makes Himself available to us for relationship. To reveal one’s name is to invite friendship or at least interaction. God desires that we might know Him and call upon Him, as the source of all we have and are, and as the Lord of life and history.
Taking this a step further, the Pope suggests that in a sense, God makes Himself “vulnerable” in this way, a gesture of trust and love towards those made in the divine image. This vulnerability is in one way merely an analogy – the All-Powerful and Perfect God cannot be harmed by us, risks nothing to the Divine Nature by relationship with us. Yet in another and profound sense, it is more than analogy: in the Incarnation of the Son, and in the mystery of the Cross, God indeed becomes ultimately vulnerable, suffering injury and death in love for us. The Word is made flesh; the Word is silenced; the Word rises in glory, that we might rise with Jesus, Whose very name (Jeshu-yah) contains the same element of the Name from Exodus. “Jesus” of course means “God saves” or “God’s salvation.” As St. Paul notes, Joel 2:32 is fulfilled in invoking the name of Jesus in faith: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To hallow God’s name, then, is to enter into a relationship of trust with the one true God, revealed fully in the Son of God Who gave His life for us and sustains our journey of faith to the Kingdom in its fullness.