Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.”
Ah, but names can hurt! Names matter. Jesus illustrates this today, in giving himself a new name in our Gospel, “I AM,” the holy name that God revealed to Moses from the burning bush.
Many biblical figures and persons throughout history changed their names or had their names changed for them. In teaching the New Testament, I was compelled (especially with adolescents) to make clear that “Christ” was not Jesus’ surname (in fact it was “Bar Yosef”). The good Ursulines who taught me for 12 years insisted on addressing us by our full baptismal names “because that is the name you are known by God.”
In the Hebrew scriptures, Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, Hoshea became Joshua, etc. to illustrate the change in their status and mission before God.
In the New Testament, Simon became Chepas/Peter, Saul became Paul, Joseph became Barnabas (a surname), Nathaniel changed to Bartholomew (a surname), Thaddeus to Jude, Thomas to Didymus, John to Mark, etc. This was to indicate a new status, an ordination of sorts towards some special role or task.
Jesus of Nazareth, would probably have never heard the name “Jesus.” In his Aramaic tongue he was “Yeshua,” or simply “Yeshu.” It means “YHWH is my salvation.”
Back in the 1930s my own aunt Mary Williamson had her name changed to Sister Mary Edward by the superior of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word in Parma Heights. Mother Brendan, SIW deemed “Williamson” an English name, the name of England's patron saint, Edward the Confessor. But in fact my Williamsons came from Donegal. Some of the names of the sisters strike me today as rather awkward: Eucharista, Rose of the Cross, Adventa. Then there were the Irish “saints” Sister Saint Jude and Sister Saint John. And the archangels, Sisters Gabriel, Michael, & Raphael. But these young women accepted their assigned religious names without question (although many eagerly reverted to their baptismal names in the wake of the Second Vatican Council).
None, of course, come close to YHWH, “I AM.”
At what times in your life has the calling of your name brought you peace and solace? At what times in your life has the calling of your name brought you sorrow or pain?
As the good sisters would ask, what is the name by which you are known to God?
—Timothy J. Cronin