The Name within a name

While Shakespeare’s Romeo claimed that “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, we know that names are, in fact, important.

Names matter. How we use them matters.

For names convey more than a simple collection of letters; just as we as individuals are more than a collection of parts.

The names we use convey our personhood.

The pronouns we use express our identity.

The nicknames we use speak of connection.

The greetings we use, the manner of speech, the vocabulary and syntax and grammar – it all presents a format of relationship.

We show respect and dignity by getting names and pronouns correct and accurate, by communicating in with appropriate manners. We may need a few tries to learn or re-learn proper pronunciation or preference, but it is time well spent; and we appreciate the patience others extend when we fumble.

When we apply this to our faith, we recognise that names also speak of relationship with God. Our scriptures are full of people and places where the name tells us about character or activity; our prayers communicate language rich in tradition and rhythm that can soothe (or disquiet) our souls.

Our relationship with God is rich in relationship; we share a history, we enjoy a current connection, we anticipate future engagements. And we recognise that this relationship is different than any other we have; for it is with the divine.

And so we name God differently. Whatever word we use, our spirits connect in a different manner than how we relate even to our most beloved here on earth.

Leonard Cohen writes: “This is the way we summon each other, but it is not the way we call upon the Name. … How beautiful our heritage, to have this way of speaking to eternity, how bountiful this solitude, surrounded, filled, and mastered by the Name, from which all things arise in splendour, depending one upon the other.”

Perhaps a sign of our spiritual maturity will be when we use names with one another in this earthly realm, with the same gentleness, beauty, and reverence that we save for The Name; for within each person before us is a spark of the divine, waiting keenly, patiently, to be called instead of summoned.