Daily homily thoughts, 5/20

IHS-monogram-Jesus-medievalesqueToday we celebrate St Bernadine of Sienna, not such a well-known saint. Which is interesting, because one of his greatest gifts to the Church is very widely known: the IHS symbol. IHS are he first three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek….and Bernadine spread thta name everywhere. It was all about Jesus for him. Which is a good thing, because he drew big crowds….30,000 or so….as he taught Jesus. Like our first reading where people call Paul and Barnabas Zeus and Heremes, making them gods — folks might have made a god out of Bernandine had he not talked about Jesus’ name so much. As our psalmist says today, Not to us Lord, not to us, but to YOUR name be ht eglory