“I ♥️ NHS” badges were once a thing – “I love the NHS”. We all did during the pandemic. Now we look on fearfully, because the NHS is on its knees. Because it hasn’t been loved, not in the way it has needed.
It’s Valentine’s Day month, so a good time to think about what, as well as who, we love. And let’s use an old-fashioned word that fits here more than we’d think – ‘hallowed’. Whilst the word originates from ‘holy’ – the ultimate pinnacle, as it were – it also means more generally ‘respected, important, revered’. So, borrowing from a well-known phrase, we could say of someone we deeply love, “Hallowed be your name”. We revere them, and we’d want the world to see who they are and do the same. If the NHS were hallowed more in hallowed circles, it may be in better health.
“Hallowed be your name” is therefore a wish, a hope, a prayer even, about the future – that the person or thing prospers. I could say it of Crystal Palace FC. Of guitarist (now Sir) Brian May (those Jubilee moments!). We might say “Hallowed by your name” about Sir David Attenborough. Dame Judi Dench. Pele. Mr Bean. Fill in your own blanks.
Our society hallows surprising things. Economic growth is super-hallowed – superficially fine, until it’s hallowed more than economic justice. Financial prosperity is hallowed over that of our planet, tragically. But then I read in today’s news, “Keep cake away from office, suggests food watchdog head” – I’m all for hallowing cake (workplace or otherwise).
Hallowing others, whether people or institutions, lifts us up and out of ourselves. When our own troubles seem large, it helps remind us of things higher and greater than us. Pinning on an “I love [whatever]” badge can be straight from the heart. Keeping wearing it helps keep our love burning. Pinning it back on after an interlude can stir maybe dying embers of that first passion.
“Hallowed be thy/your name” we may have uttered or stumbled through many times. May the embers of whatever and whoever we have hallowed in the past be stirred afresh. And may those words as prayer help lift our hearts from our daily struggles to greater heights, and to the One who, in fact, hallows us.
