Day Thirteen: The Incarnation and Names of Jesus, Part Two

“What does your name mean?” I ask my students, rhetorically at first. In the ancient world, a person’s name was part of their identity. It revealed something about who they were or who they were related to. In some parts of the modern world, a name is given to a person in relationship to how they are known. Nicknames in the Western world are a remnant of this. If you know a person’s nickname, chances are you also know, something personal about them their identity. There is a certain intimacy or implied vulnerability between you and the other person if you know each others’ names or nicknames. My student, about whom the day’s prayer centered, is “known” by his friends and fellow cadets not only by his given name, but also by the deeper meaning of that name. In class today, one of the main objectives is to list and describe the names of Jesus. Those names are signs or symbols…they are ropes that help us to understand who Jesus is and how He can help us to develop a relationship with God.

A name can be like an image; they "point" us to a deeper Truth. This image of the Blessed Mother has stood on the front on my home parish my entire life. It is more than "decoration"; it is a sacrament of home...Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Atlanta, Georgia (photo P. Smith)

I ask students if their name has any deeper meaning. Often I have students who are named after a relative who passed away. Some of my students come from cultures where names are deeply spiritual or traditional. Some students are named after a Catholic Saint on whose feast day they were born. Some students have several middle names, all of which are the names of relatives. In the West, parents tend to pick names that may just sound nice to them, but even then, if we ask parents, there is usually something deeper going on. My brothers and sisters, for example, all have Irish names (Sean, Kathleen, Brendan, Eileen, and Anne). When you ask our parents, they will say they liked the sound of those names, but they will also admit that the names say something about who we are and where we come from.

The “Jesus Prayer” contains all the major and common “names” of Jesus. “Dear Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have Mercy on me, a sinner.” To refer to Jesus as “Lord”, “Jesus”, “Christ”, or “Son” is to say or proclaim something specific and powerful about Jesus. At first, these words seem basic and just narrative descriptors of Jesus, but in class today I introduce students to the deeper meaning behind each of these words and how, when we call Jesus any of these “names”, we are actually praying…we are encountering God in how we refer to Jesus.