The power of names

This morning, we went to Saint Teresa of Avila parish in Madrid for a catechesis session and Mass. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux's relics arrived today and they will be here for three days. The church was packed; there were people sitting on the floor.

Cardinal Francis George from the Archdiocese of Chicago gave the catechesis session and spoke on the power of names. "When you know someone's name, you can build on the relationship, but to give someone your name is to give them a certain level of control because they can call on you," he explained. "Faith is a response to God's call. He takes the initiative and we can't control God."

With the phrase "I Am", Jesus claims divinity. He was one of us, but different. We don't have a name for God in the Bible until Jesus arrives in the world. Through Jesus, God becomes one of us. We can't use the name to control God, but He trusts us with it and He wants to have a relationship with us. We can always call on Him and we can understand His ways because of Divine Revelation through Jesus. We give Him our name and He calls us by name.

Faith gives us a way of thinking that doesn't fit with the world's. Our faith tells us who we are as followers of Jesus. "The heart has its reasons that intellect doesn't understand," explained Cardinal George. "It's a marriage; Jesus loves His Church and we can trust Him like a wife trusts her husband," he added. The problem, however, is that our sinfulness stops us from trusting God.

It is Jesus who acts in the sacraments. It's Jesus who forgives sins, who baptises, who gives himself to us in communion, and faith helps us to overcome our own evil and the evil of the world. "Faith comes first in baptism," said Cardinal George. "When we were baptised, we were born into the family of God and it cannot be 'undone', just as our birth into our biological families cannot be undone," he explained.

Jesus is also the saviour of the whole world and he wants the world to know who He is. To grow in the firmness of the faith is to take on this mission and that's Cardinal George's prayer for us this World Youth Day.