Getting the Name Right (2019-07-28, Sunday-17)

HML  • 2019 July 28 •  17^th Sunday   (ex-07052)

• Genesis 18:20-32   • Psalm 138 • Colossians 2:12-14  • +Luke 11:1-13 •           

Title:    “Getting the Name Right”

[_01_]   I am a visitor here from New Jersey ....  In New Jersey, I am from the town of West Orange, about 10 miles from New York City,  the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes.

          As you know well, in the apparition/appearance of Our Lady of Lourdes to Bernadette of Soubirous, in France, Mary identifies herself mysteriously.

          When Bernadette asks this person “who are you? What is your name?”,  Bernadette receives the response and reports that ‘the beautiful lady told me “I am the Immaculate Conception” ’.

          This report casts doubt on Bernadette, at first.

          What is doubtful at first becomes decisive later, because Bernadette was a peasant, not well educated and unlikely to know what “Immaculate Conception” meant.

          But, Bernadette reported this over and over again.

          In the end, the persistent and consistent witness of Bernadette to “I am the Immaculate Conception” persuaded many to the truthfulness of Bernadette and the holiness/sanctity of Lourdes as a shrine and basilica/cathedral we know today.

          Bernadette got the name right, even though she did not know exactly what the name meant.

[_02_]   Normally, we get a name – or word – right because we know what the name means. Normally, we say something because we know what it means. Or we say someone’s name because we know who he or she is.

          Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (B16) writes about prayer and the meaning of prayer that we often learn to say things – and names - even before we know their full implication and meaning. 

          We teach our children these words so that – individually and communally – we can talk freely to God.

          In the Gospel, this Sunday, Jesus teaches us about the name, about the name of God and asks us to call God our Father, right in the beginning of the prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…”

          We might observe that Jesus does not spend a lot of time in the Gospel talking about himself but rather about his father and “our Father” in heaven and our relationship with our heavenly Father.

          Jesus wants us to get the name right.

[_03]    From an earliest age, from our earliest ages – as children – we practice calling people by name – especially our parents …even if we do not know everything implied by the name of father, mother, dad, mom …and  grandparents, grandma, grandpa.

          Sometimes, our parents may be – or may have been – exhausted/tired out at hearing their names out loud so many times each day.  (They may want to change their names (a joke)…)

          But, we begin by calling our parents by name – Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa – especially if we want something from them, right at the beginning of the statement. Sometimes, if we have something difficult to communicate to someone… it is a dead give-away when we use the person’s name up-front and personal in the conversation:  “Mom, dot, dot, dot..…” “Dad, dot, dot, dot..)

          Before we say anything else, we want to get the name right, to know that something important is being said.

[_04_]     Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote about something another Benedict – St. Benedict – wrote about in his rule for the monastery community.

          That normally we think about something and then we say it …or we think about someone and then we say his or her name.

          But, it’s beneficial for us to get the name right without having to think about it too much, to practice using the name.

          We do this in everyday life. Consider how freely and easily we we feel in a conversation when we can remember the other person’s name.

          On the other hand, the opposite is also true. If we have trouble remembering or cannot recall a person’s name, we may feel tongue-tied or have to fake it until we make it through the conversation or meeting.

          And, we hope that the person’s name will come up in conversation to rescue us.

[_05_]    Pope Benedict’s point is that regarding the Lord’s prayer, we are invited to call God our Father, to call Him by name, to remember that God is our Father.

          But, that can be difficult for us, or some of us, it’s difficult because, perhaps, our fathers or our mothers were difficult or tough or distant or absent.

          But, Jesus still wants us to know God as our Father.

          Father Ronald Knox writes this about the Fatherhood of God. Father Knox’s point is that the fatherhood you experienced maybe wasn’t necessarily a gift to you so that you could understand God, but rather God’s love is ment to help you understand true fatherhood. Knox writes:

“You must not wait until you can learn to understand your father before you learn to know God. It is by learning to know God that you will understand your father.” (Ronald Knox, Pastoral & Occasional Sermons “The Fatherhood of God”, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002, pp. 25-26)

[_06_]       B16 wrote:

“And so God has come to our aid: He himself provides the words of our prayer and teaches us to pray. Through the prayers that come from him, he enables us to set out toward him; by praying together with the brothers and sisters he has given us, we gradually come to know him and draw closer to him.”  (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, “Ch. 5 The Lord’s Prayer”, New York: Image, p. 131)  [_fin_]