top of page

Called by Name

  • gospelthoughts
  • Nov 14, 2016
  • 5 min read

Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Jer 29:11, 12, 14 The Lord said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. You will call upon me, and I will answer you, and I will lead back your captives from every place.

Collect Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Apocalypse 3:1-6. 14-22; Psalm 14; Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a 'sinner'. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:1-10)

Called by Name I remember some time back meeting an Archbishop among many people in a crowd. It was a friendly meeting, and he asked my name — and I gave it. Some time later I was in a situation in which, once again, I had occasion to meet that same Archbishop. To my astonishment he remembered my name. I asked him how he did it, and he said that he simply had a good memory. I thought he might have some technique such as connecting my name with some other image in his mind which would be triggered by the sight of me. But no, it was just that he had a very good memory. On a later occasion again we met and once again, he remembered my name. I was very impressed. The point here, though, is the impression that this gave me. His remembering my name gave me the impression that he had a special concern, interest in, and liking for me. It was a mistaken impression in the sense that any interest in me he might have had certainly did not go beyond that which he had for each and all whom he met. He just had a remarkable facility for remembering names and faces, which he exercised with all and sundry. It was an excellent gift for any person to have and it certainly won friends. I myself felt as if I was a friend to him, simply because he remembered and knew my name. I felt influenced by him and disposed to be influenced by him further, because of the friendship I assumed existed between the two of us. This whole impression was based on his addressing me by my name. It is an intriguing and important feature of human relationships, the use of a person’s name. It can be very embarrassing when we cannot remember the name of a person — and we usually try to hide the fact in some way. Imagine living with a person and never addressing him by name — it would be preposterous. Now, this is a notable feature of Yahweh God’s relationship with his chosen people. He has called them by name. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). The Lord God goes on to assure his people that he will be with them. He has named them as belonging to him (vs 7).

It would be profoundly moving to be addressed by God, and to be addressed by name. In the Gospel of St Luke (and our passage today is drawn from that Gospel) the first words uttered from heaven involve addressing someone by name. In the first chapter, the first words spoken are those of the Angel, addressed to Zachariah: Fear not, Zachariah (mee phobou, Zacharia). It must have been a profoundly moving feature of this apparition for Zachariah to have been addressed by name. An Angel had come from the throne of God to give tidings of joy. Zachariah would have a great son, and the Angel informed Zachariah of his name: you will call him by the name of John. The name came from heaven, and it came with the announcement of his grand mission. The scene shifts to a different locality, and it is six months later. The same Angel Gabriel is sent to the virgin of Nazareth, Mary. He addresses her by name: Fear not, Mary! As with Zachariah, it must have been profoundly moving for Mary to have a messenger from heaven address her by name. She is informed by the Angel that her Child will have a name. She will call him Jesus. God addressing his people and his individual children by name is important in the Gospels. Consider that sad scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas steps forward to kiss Christ. Christ addresses him by name, and with love: Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48). I suspect that it was precisely his being addressed by name that led to Judas’s sense of the enormity of what he had done, and his subsequent collapse. Among the first words that John records in his Gospel as having been uttered by the risen Jesus was his addressing Mary of Magdalene by name: Mary! (John 20: 16). It is in this general context that we ought consider our Gospel today (Luke 19:1-10), and in particular the first word that Jesus Christ addressed to Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of Jericho — the one whom the crowd called a sinner. Christ addresses him by name: “Zacchaeus, come down immediately! I must stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus had been called by name, and he rose to the occasion with gratitude and joy.

Though we do not hear it physically, Jesus Christ addresses each one of us by name. To this one he says, John! I must stay at your house today! To another he says, James, I must stay at your house today! Christ knows and loves each of us personally, and he knows and calls us by name. In one of his Letters, St Paul writes, Christ loved me and gave himself up for me. Christ had called Paul by name. His first word to Paul was to address him by name: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Christ addressed Zacchaeus by name, and Zacchaeus converted, turning away from sin and receiving Christ into his home and his heart. He addresses each of us by name. Let us do the same as did Zacchaeus, turning away from sin and giving our hearts to Jesus Christ.


(E.J.Tyler)

-----------------------


 
 
 

Comments


bottom of page