Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Elizabeth Kirkland CahillDecember 23, 2016

When the eighth day came to circumcise the child they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” ~ Lk 1:59-60

One of the joys of early pregnancy (and for some queasy mothers-to-be, they are few!) is ruminating on the baby’s name. Do we name the child after a beloved grandparent or distinguished ancestor? Do we go with one of the more popular contemporary choices? Or do we simply pick a name we like? I have known cases where the decision changes once the baby is born (“He just doesn’t look like a Nathaniel; let’s call him Will.”), or where parental indecisiveness has left the waiting newborn without a name for a few days!

In today’s Gospel, Elizabeth and Zechariah resist the social pressure to call their child after his father, and instead adopt the God-given name for the baby who will become the prophet of the most high. For us, as for John the Baptist, our name is central to our identity and to our relationships with others. As motivational speaker and author Dale Carnegie advised, “Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

RELATED: To subscribe to these Advent reflections, sign up here and check "Digital Content Updates."

What often helps me in prayer, particularly if I am distracted, is to just sit as Jesus would have done with Thomas or Mary Magdalene or Zaccheus. For the God who numbers the stars is also the God who knows each of us by name and sits with us in prayer. The relationship with Christ that we cultivate through prayer is grounded in his complete understanding of who we are, down to speaking our very name. What a gift it is to be so known by our God.

RELATED: Read all of our Advent reflections for 2016

O God of all the earth and every living creature, May I feel your all-knowing, all-loving embrace every day. Amen.

For today’s readings, click here.

 

 

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Paola Ugaz, a Peruvian journalist who helped expose the abuse committed by leaders of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, gives Pope Leo XIV a stole made of alpaca wool, during the pope's meeting with members of the media May 12, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Pope Leo offered a heartening message for a global media that has endured a pretty awful year.
Kevin ClarkeMay 23, 2025
If you think our enthusiasm for our basketball team was intense, just wait until you see our support for Pope Leo XIV.
Jack DoolinMay 23, 2025
“I don’t think he’s the kind of man who sends coded messages,” Cardinal Michael Czerny says in this exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.
Gerard O’ConnellMay 23, 2025
First-grade students finish an assignment at St. Ambrose Catholic School in Tucson, Ariz., in this 2014 photo. Arizona has one of the nation’s strongest school choice programs, with vouchers available to every child in the state. (CNS file photo/Nancy Wiechec)
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying state funds to a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma. What should American Catholics be asking about public funding for school choice?
Beth BlaufussMay 23, 2025