Have you ever wanted to change your name? How would you feel if someone changed it for you?
It is still common practice for women to adopt their husband's surname on marriage, though this is not as frequent as it once was. Many women feel that, if they do change their name, then they become the husband's property. The fact is that this is precisely how women have been treated. Not changing your surname says that you are no-one's property. It says that you are a human being in your own right, but at what cost?
[PAUSE]
Human beings are very good at taking a fine institution and breaking it. You might wonder if God is thinking, "this is why we can't have nice things!" The whole point of the surname is to bring people into one family. In that sense, there is ownership. If we belong to a family then that family owns us. That is not the same sort of ownership as owning a horse or a potato. It is ownership in the sense of belonging, of being an integral part. If we are in a family then we are looked after and we play our part in looking after others. There is a mutual recognition of each others' dignity and worth as a human being. You might all share the same name, but you are still an individual person within that family and you are loved for that. That's how it ought to be.
But "ought" isn't "is". Fallen humans mean fallen families.
[PAUSE]
Jesus wants us to be His family. He tells us to call God, Our Father. But, if you think about it, God Himself needs no name. If He had decided to create nothing then there would only be Him: no names are necessary when there is just you. Perhaps this is why He gives only the great name "I AM" to Moses, because God is the only one whose existence depends on nothing other than Himself. A name isn't necessary when there is only one of you. But then names aren't necessary when there are just two of you and you are always present to one another.
Names only become necessary when there are three or more persons and you want to distinguish between them. To give a name to things does show some ownership or perhaps control over those things. We see this when God and Man sit down together and name the animals. Man plays a part in that because Man needs names. God doesn't. Man needs names because he cannot communicate with every individual directly at the same time. God can.
Until God becomes a man.
[PAUSE]
God is made Man and Man is limited to one place at a time. God suddenly needs names. The Father names the Son, Jesus and we have learned to call Him, Emmanuel - God with us. And Emmanuel gives us a surname of Christian to be part of one family. Many people think that Christ is Jesus' surname. It's His title for He is the Anointed One. But it might as well be His surname because, through Baptism, we are anointed into His family and receive the surname of Christ.
God Who doesn't need to be named is given a name so that we can belong to Him and to each other. We are owned, not to slavery but to freedom. Our name exists precisely for other people and not for ourselves. How do we use our own names to declare the name of God With Us?
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