" PAST " SERVING WITH THE ANGELS WHAT'S IN A NAME?

 

"What's in a name?" For Catholics there has always been a great deal!

 

 

THE NAME  - "JESUS " - St.Paul tells us that "At the name of Jesus every knee should bend." 

 

The long custom of Catholics had been to bow their head at the name of Jesus being heard. After the Council the idea got about that this was somehow "passe", INDEED ALMOST SUPERSTITIOUS(!). Some of us could never withdraw an honour due to God made man for the sake of a fashion. Gradually a situation has evolved in which Our Lord's Holy Name is a commonplace exclamation on TV and in the movies.

 

 

Can we really blame non-believers if we have withdrawn honour to His Name and, worse, do not complain to the authorities about the abuse of it?

 

SAINTS'NAMES

Time was when you could always identify a Christian by his/her Christian name. In some Catholic and Orthodox countries the big annual celebration is a person's "name day"- their patron saint's Feast Day. Their actual birthday was celebrated only by the immediate family, but everyone of course knew their name day! The selection of a name was often determined by the Feast Day on which a child was born. More often though, parents chose the child's name because of their devotion to a particular saint into whose care- patronage-they committed their beloved child.
 

Things have degenerated far and fast.

 Even among Catholics it is hard not to laugh (or cry) at the absurd concoctions of names now given to hapless infants.
 

In the same way, the Church committed churches, parishes, schools and institutions to the care of a certain patron saint. However, in the post Conciliar period, the custom has broken down regarding many schools and institutions and even the occasional parish. They have become "Slough of Despair Catholic Community" or somesuch. Very Post Conciliar : everything is about US.
 

Members of most religious orders gave up their personal names and took "names in religion" which symbolised the offering of their personality totally to Christ , and the adoption of a patron saint. More lately, "I gotta be ME" became the "order"of the day and we all know what happened to those religious orders.
 

So, there is, and can be, a great deal of lived Catholic culture in a name which taps into the glorious reality of the Communion of Saints. Clergy, parents and grandparents can do a great deal to breathe life back into the Catholic way by emphasising "what's in a name" for  us. But its too late to begin objecting to inappropriate names at the Baptismal font.It takes careful remote preparation - from the pulpit, and in the home to get people to appreciate the riches at stake.