Bless Not Bind

Bestowing names upon others but respecting their freedom

01/19/2018

Mark 3:13-19 Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach  and to have authority to drive out demons: He appointed the Twelve: Simon, whom he named Peter;  James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

            When you bestow a name upon someone – like a baby when it’s born, for instance – you bless them but you do not bind them. That reminds me of that joke about the new Catholic convert. A Baptist man moved into a neighborhood of all Catholics. It was Lent and a Friday, and the Baptist decided to grill a juicy steak for dinner. The neighboring Catholics caught the smell and were sorely tempted. This happened Friday after Friday, so the Catholics had to do something. They eventually convinced the man to become Catholic and took him to St. Mary’s. The priest sprinkled some water over him and said, “You were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist, but now you are a Catholic.”  Everyone went home happy. The next year when Lent rolled around again the smell of steaks on the grill again filled the neighborhood on Friday. The men rushed out to see the former Baptist standing over his steak with some water saying, “You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, but now you are a fish.” I know a few cradle Catholics who’ve tried that blessing before a meal in Lent. Just because we change someone’s name – from “Baptist Bob” to “Catholic Carl” – doesn’t mean we can control their behavior, even if sometimes we’d like to. Changing a name blesses another person, it does not bind them.

             This is no different for Jesus. In some rare and significant times, Jesus bestows new names on people. In the gospel of Mark, he calls his closest disciples by the new name of “apostles,” which means “sent.” Jesus will send them into the world. Disciple means “learner,” but apostle means “teacher.” But Jesus also gives special names to specific apostles, when he wants to bless them even more. So, he changes “Simon’s” name to “Peter,” which means “rock,” because Jesus will build his Church on Peter the rock, and not on sand. But does that name change bind the apostles and Peter in such a way that they can no longer sin or abuse their freedom? Clearly not. We all remember very well how all the apostles abandon Jesus at the Cross (except John), and one of them, Judas Iscariot, betrays our Lord. And what about Peter, the so-called “rock”? Well, the rock crumbled in the courtyard of Caiaphas, when a slave girl asked him if he just knew Jesus. It’s as easy to make a mere man into an apostle as it is to change a cow into a fish. Bestowing a name blesses but it does not bind.

            This lesson about nomenclature has some surprising and maybe unpleasant applications for us today. Think about occasions when your name was changed or you bestowed a name upon someone else. We sometimes mistakenly believe we bind them to behave a certainly way, and not just bless them. Parents give their children names and rightly expect certain behavior. But when those children get older and move out of the home, some parents continue to expect they can bind their children to certain behavior, but they cannot. Bestowing a name blesses, but it does not bind. When a man is ordained as a priest, he is called “Father.” That is a profound name change, and carries the weight of the faith of so many people. We expect priests to behave according to high standards, and they should! But sometimes we priests don’t, because bestowing a name only blesses that individual, it does not bind them (even if he is a priest). The same is true in marriage. Married people’s names sometimes change. And we may mistakenly think that now I can control or bind my spouse to certain behavior, or make them avoid other behavior. But that’s not so.

          A new name does not automatically bestow a new character; that only happens in the hidden recesses of the heart, where freedom and grace embrace. It’s as easy to change another person from a sinner into a saint as it is to change a cow into a fish, just by calling it so.

Praised be Jesus Christ!