By Joy Prakash, OFM
Everything exists because God called it into being by name. In the beginning God says, “Let there be light” and there was light, “let there be sun and moon; trees and vegetables, birds and fish.”
Everything that exists says, “Yes to God by being itself”. The stars shine in their watches and are glad; he called them and they said, “Here we are”. They shine with gladness for him who made them (Bar 3:34). Stars joyfully say ‘Yes’ to God by shining.
One of Adam’s first tasks in Genesis is to name. God brought all the animals to Adam ‘to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called them, that was its name’ (Gen 2:19). But Adam needs more than the animals. He names Eve, who in turn will call him by name. Human beings flourish when we name each other.
Baptism begins with asking questions and the first question concerns the candidate’s name. “What name do you give your child?”
When the Nazis came to power in Germany and Austria, they stamped the identity cards of Jews with new first names. All the men were called ‘Israel’ and women ‘Sara’. These names both identified people as Jews and also wiped out their individuality.
When we were baptised, our names were recorded. It is a sign that our names are treasured by God. We are enrolled as members of Christ’s household and so belong to the One who never forgets anyone. “Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should have no compassion of the son of her womb?” Even these may forget yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hand” (Is 49:15).
In all the loving ways in which we are addressed – by our parents, our friends, community members – there is an echo of God’s address to us. St. Augustine wondered why God was silent during his childhood and then he realises that all the time God had been addressing him through his mother: “Then whose words were they but yours which you were chanting in my ears through my mother, your faithful servant?”
St. Catherine of Siena said to Stefano di Corrada, “Be who God meant you to be and you will set Italy on fire.” We are not just human beings but human becomings…for us to be is to have a lifetime, a development…our lifetime is a life story.”
Gregory David Roberts, an Australian, who lived a life of crime and violence escaped from prison and came to India. A turning point in his life happened when the village women gave him a new name, “Shantaram” which means man of peace and that was what he became.
So when a child is named at baptism, it is given more than a convenient label. It is being prepared for participation in the conversation of those who love it. Naming the child in love is the food that will help it grow into a human being capable of calling others in love too. But this conversation is sacramental of our entry into conversation with God, which will transform us in way that we cannot anticipate. We may fear to be entangled with God, not knowing what will become of us. It is dangerous to let go of control of our identity.
So the baptised life is a vocation: it is to be someone who says YES to God, and who is embarked on a journey. We are called by name not just once, at the font. We go on being called by God until we see God face to face.
The Book of Revelation says that the one who conquers “I will give a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it” (2:17). This is one of the most mysterious of passages. What it means is that finally in God we shall discover who we are. Our identity is to be discovered in Christ. When we are named at baptism, it is not so as to give us fixed identity once and for all but to invite us to enter into a conversation with God and all his friends, in which it will eventually be disclosed who we are called to be. Just as we draw closer to God by being freed of false ideas of God so the baptised become themselves by letting go of false self-images, liberated from identities which are denigrating or define us in opposition to others, or because they are too small. “For only he who lives his life as a mystery is truly alive.”
At the time of Clare’s canonisation, Pope Alexander played with her name: Clare: the clear one, Clarissa – the most brilliant one.
“Clare, brilliant by her bright merits, by the brightness of her great glory in heaven, and by the brilliance of her sublime miracles on earth, shines brilliantly. “O Clare, endowed with so many brilliant titles! Bright even before your conversion, brighter in your manner of living, brighter still in your enclosed life, and brilliant in splendour after the course of your mortal life!
O the inestimable brilliance of blessed Clare! The more eagerly she is sought for something the more brilliant she is found in everything. This woman, I say, was resplendent in the world, shone brilliantly in her religious life, enlightened as a radiant beam in her home, dazzled as lightning in the enclosure. “She shone forth in life, radiant after death. Enlightening on earth, she dazzles in heaven!
In the many preoccupations of modern life, let us not forget the destiny God wants us to seek