Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Name
It certainly used to be the case that some countries would only allow babies to be called certain names from an approved list. In France, your name-day was apparently regarded with more importance than your birthday. It is still the case that members of the Church will wish you "Buon Onomastico!" on the feast of the Saint who shares his or her name with you. If your name is not that of a saint then you seem to miss out.
These days, people want control of their identity and there has been something of a backlash against the idea of your parents being the ones to give you your name.
There are good reasons: some parents are irresponsible and give babies inappropriate names which will damage their relationships with others and undermine their sense of self. Yet there are many of us who will change a perfectly respectable name purely on the basis that they did not choose it themselves. "It's my name so I get to choose it!"
Today, there are even parents who will not even name a baby to prevent a forcing of an identity upon them. After all, getting your name changed by deed poll is a bit of a palaver. But what effect does that have on the baby? How would you feel at not having a name until you got to pick it?
Naming a baby is more than just putting something down on the birth certificate. It is affecting that child's identity for the rest of her life.
We do have to remember that there are parents who are so abusive that is quite reasonable for a child to leave and change her identity in order to escape from the abuse. The change of name is the sign of ending the relationship with the toxic family. But then, this is a family in name only.
[PAUSE]
Jesus is not a name in St Joseph's family, nor is it in Mary's. His Name is given to Mary from God by the Angel. This is a clear statement that the Lord's parentage is not of human origin.
Giving a baby a name is a statement of family, but that baby deserves to be part of a family in more than name only. Giving a baby a name needs to be an assurance of unconditional love. Giving a baby a name needs to be considerate of how that child will fit in to world. Yet, often, we fail at supplying their needs. Our failures as parents damage our children. That damage contributes to our children's failures to be parents. That's how Sin works and propagates.
[PAUSE]
Jesus' Name comes from God Himself. It is a clear indication of His desire to save us from sin throughout History. Just as Sin propagates through Time, so does His one single perfect Sacrifice on the Cross in which we participate in the Mass.
In the Mass, we come together as a dysfunctional family to receive Christ in order to be reconciled with Him and with each other. We know we are not perfect. We know that abuses have happened in our Church family even at the hands of priests and bishops who are supposed to serve the Church. We loathe that so much! But the Christian family is a family in more than name only, for that name is Jesus!
We bow in worship at His Holy Name because we recognise His identity as God Incarnate Who chooses to be given a name that we can pronounce so that we can call upon Him and know that He will hear us. In His Name, the abuses with the Church Family will be exposed and stopped. Wounds will be healed. Tears will be wiped away. There will be a family celebration!
[PAUSE]
St John reminds us that if we are God's family on Earth then we are His family in Heaven. If He is the Father then He will give us our new name along with our white robes of Heaven. We will be renamed so that we might know that we are part of His family for Eternity. That name will tell us who we are - who we really are.
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