What’s in a name? Quite a lot as all parents realize when they carefully and thoughtfully name their children such as Mary, Robert, Rose, Edward, or John.
The name Jonathan conjures up the meaning “God has given;” David means “Beloved.” Diane means “Divine.” Elizabeth means “God is satisfaction or God is my oath” Our names can define our identities – who we are or even can be.
How about the name Judas? It means “the praised one.” Are we surprised? After all, as noted in the Gospel, Judas Iscariot was “the son of destruction,” Jesus’ betrayer who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. According to the famous poet Dante, Judas can be found in the ninth and final circle of Hell where he is being chewed in Satan’s mouth. Quite an appropriate fate for one who betrays. Those of us who might consider betrayal of a loved one or a friend, or our oaths, might keep that image in our heads.
In the first reading we hear that another Judas, also called Barsabbas or Justus, lost out to Matthias as the new apostle. Lots were drawn to pick the winner. Just imagine if this Judas had won the drawing, and Matthias was the loser. As the new Apostle replacing the betrayer Judas, his name might have overshadowed him. He might have been judged solely by his name.
Therefore, our first reading suggests how shallow and foolish we can be when we judge someone by their cover – by their name, or by their appearance instead of looking inside them to know them and to discover who they really are, what they believe, and what’s in their hearts, such as love – or the pain they hide. Names are important, but it is the person – each one’s uniqueness – that is relevant and should be our only focus – not their covers.
Never judging a book by its cover, or a person by the color of their skin, by gender, age, political party affiliation, or LGBTQ sexual and gender orientation, for example, are good Christian and Jesus rules by which to live. We likely would discover that those people – those books of many pages – are all gifts from God. They are all books we should read and appreciate.
Our Gospel appears to make this point about names because it speaks of the name of Jesus – our faith’s unique Son of God. We all refer to him as Jesus Christ, but Christ was not his last name. We call him by the name of Christ because he is our savior highlighting the need for us to love God, ourselves, and our neighbors, and to be truthful. One theme of the Gospel is truth that always sets us free.
Here’s some truth – Jesus is the revelation of God and the one who speaks the word of God. In fact, Jesus is the Word of God guiding us and giving us strength – and truth.
Consider these words – and truth – from the letter to the Hebrews. "The word of God – Jesus – is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” Now we are better able to understand the meaning of the expression “The truth hurts.”
Jesus is the truth, and to follow him can be painful because we must abandon our old ways that involve pride, ego, selfishness, gossiping, and especially being hurtful and racist. We need to remember this especially when we get on social media.
Now, for our second reading and a story.
A woman – her name was Beth – was sitting at an airport terminal, waiting to board a plane. She was reading a bible.
Suddenly she felt as if the people sitting around her were staring at her. She looked up, but realized they were looking just over her head in the direction right behind her.
She turned around and saw a flight attendant pushing an old man in a wheelchair. He had very long white hair that was quite tangled and such a mess. His face was really wrinkled, and he looked sad.
She didn't know why, but she was drawn to the man. She thought that God had something in mind for her. Nevertheless, she thought, "Oh, God, please, don’t place him next to me.”
But God did, and, suddenly, she knew what God wanted her to do. She was supposed to brush his hair. She went and knelt down in front of the old man, and said "Sir, may I brush your hair for you?"
He replied, "What?"
She repeated, "Sir, may I have the honor of brushing your hair for you?"
The old man just looked confused and said "Well, I guess if you really want to."
She said, "I don't have a brush, but I thought I would ask anyway."
He replied, "Look in the bag hanging on the back of my chair, there is a brush in there."
So, she got the brush out and started brushing his hair. Once she was a little girl with long hair, so she had lots of practice getting tangles out and knew how to be gentle with him. She worked for a long time until every last tangle was out.
Just as she was finishing up, she heard the old man crying. She went and put her hands on his knees, kneeled in front of him again, looked directly into his eyes, and said "Sir, do you know Jesus?"
He answered, "Yes, of course I know Jesus. You see, my wife told me she couldn't marry me until I asked Jesus to come into my heart, and I did."
He continued, "You know, I’m on my way home to see my wife. I have been in the hospital for a long time. My wife couldn't visit with me because she is so frail herself."
He said, "I was so worried about how terrible my hair looked, and I didn't want her to see me looking so awful, but I couldn't brush my hair, all by myself."
Tears were rolling down his cheeks, as he thanked Beth for brushing his hair. He thanked her over and over again.
She was crying, people all around witnessing this were crying. As they were all boarding the plane, the flight attendant, who was also crying, stopped her and asked, "Why did you do that?"
She simply replied, “I’ve read that God is love. I wanted to share my love of God with that man. I wanted to show that I had Jesus in my heart.” (end)
This story reflects what we read in the first letter of John. It’s a beautiful letter with these lines:
"We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him, or her." That is a profound conclusion about love, and God.
We have important questions to answer: Whose hair have we brushed lately? To whom have we shown that Jesus is in our hearts?
Let’s remember: If love is in our hearts, that’s where we will find God, as close as our next heartbeat, as close as our next breath.
Deacon David Pierce
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