While shopping at Safeway, Sister Claire and Sister Mary, two nuns,
were passing the liquor and the wine section, and says one to the
other, “Sister, would you like a wee beer?” Sister Mary answered,
“Indeed, I would love one. But I’d feel a little uncomfortable going
up to purchase it.” Sister Claire says, “Well, I’ll handle that right
away.” She marches over, picks up a six-pack, heads off to the
cashier. The cashier is a little shocked. She said, “It’s for washing
our hair.” And, without even missing a beat, the guy reaches under,
grabs a thing of pretzel sticks, sticks them in, “And this is for the
curlers.” .... Sister Joanne didn’t like that!

What’s in a name? What’s in a name? What’s in your name? What is the
meaning of your name? What is the meaning of my name? There are
naming ceremonies nearly in every single culture on this planet. If
you go down to the desert Southwest, the Hopi Indians don’t name
their child until twenty days, until they hold it up before the sun
and then the fathers present the baby for the first time. The
Cherokees do something similar, only they have this magical number of
seven. And so, on the seventh day, the baby is named. The Jewish
tradition has circumcision, and I’m glad we don’t do that in our
tradition! But also, our name is given to us offficially in that
moment when our parents choose it for us. Our parents and the people
who we love choose the name that we have.

Why did John the Baptist, then, at Jesus’ baptism, why didn’t he just
say, “Here comes Jesus? Here comes my cousin.” He did recognize him
right from the very moment that they met in the womb, when Elizabeth
and Mary met. Why did he say, “I did not know him.” John perceived in
his ministry that he was pointing to Jesus, and when Jesus came
toward him, he saw a much deeper reality. What’s in a name? The very
essence of who we are. It’s how we communicate the reality. It’s the
name God calls each of us. The name that John perceived, the
spiritual name of Jesus was “This is the Lamb of God who takes away
the sins of the world.” That reality, the Jewish people and the
Joanine Community, the community that this Gospel was written to,
would have heard that very loudly and very clearly in their cultural
melieu, in the space that they were in. They would have heard “The
Lamb of God,” even though a lamb is a beautiful soft, cuddley, little
thing. But the lamb was used, in the tradition of the Old Testament,
to expiate sins, for the forgiveness of sins. And these lambs were
slaughtered. Think of the Lamb of the Passover, when the blood of the
lamb was put on the lintel of the door, the New Covenant. Even in the
very beginning of our liturgical season, we have just celebrated the
birthday of Christ, and now we are pointing very clearly to the
passion and death and resurrection of Jesus. And every time we come
to Mass we hear this over and over again and we don’t delve into and
sometimes we say these words so often we don’t understand the meaning
of them. “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world. This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world. This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Grant us peace.” We say it every time we say Mass. Every time we
celebrate Mass and the Eucharist together, these words are said.

There is a much deeper meaning to that name, to who Jesus is, and
when the dove comes down on him, that is the same dove, the same Holy
Spirit that came on each of us at our Baptism. It calls us to live
lives of holiness. So, what’s in a name? There’s a much greater,
deeper essence, the very reality of who we are. What name does God
call you? Just say your own name in your own heart for a moment, with
God echoing that name. Jane? Elizabeth? I baptized these two babies,
just recently, Martina and Francesca. (Twin girls in the congregation
that Father Aidan baptized just a few weeks ago.) Aren’t they
beautiful? And then we have little Ray.... Each of us are called by
name and we have a very definite reason for being.

When I was named “Aiden” my mother actually wanted to call me
“Adrian.” And my mother was on the way to have me. She was twenty-one
years old, and she passed my grandmother’s house and my grandmother
said, “What are you going to call that child?” My mother said,
“Adrian.” ....”Indeed no child of mine will ever be called an English
name! It’ll be Aidan!” So that’s how I got my name, Aidan. And, in
high school, I hated it. I really did because there were five Aidan’s
in my class. And so, I just thought it was a very sort of common
name, over there. Now it’s the most popular name for baby boys in the
United States. And that’s because of “Sex and the City,” but we’re
not going there. So my name means “Little Fire.” And there are (What
are you laughing at?) ...Moving right along, “John,” the meaning,
obviously we have St. John. We have many different levels of John,
but my John, the John I was named after was my mother’s father who
had just died the year before she was married. And if you think of
the names in your own family members.... My brother who is next to
me, for example, is Gerald Joseph, “Gerald” after my Uncle Gerald,
“Joseph” after my father and my grandfather, and of course St. Joseph
as father. There are so many levels to the meanings and the reality
of who we are called and how we are called to live out our baptismal
reality!

So, I would invite you for a moment to turn to somebody beside you,
probably somebody you don’t know, and say your name to them, and then
tell them why you think you got the name that you got. Discuss......
(Lots of conversation ensues... Privately, to Father Dibble, “Why
were you called “Michael?” Reply: “Because I was an angel!” Michael
what? “Bernard.... Dominic” Reasons for that too? “Because I loved
the Dominican nuns.” Laughter... Fr. Dibble: “This is the way the
Catholic Church should be!” Conversation among the congregation
continues, and then people begin to stand.) No, you don’t need to
stand. Hold on a second. I haven’t finished. No, don’t stand! Stop
talking!

We all have a reality that communicates the essence of who we are,
our baptismal call. Let us all stand together and pray.