Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

What’s in a Name?

I have heard this phrase before, but where? A quick online search tells me it appears in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. Lamenting that her family has a nasty feud with Romeo’s family, Juliet says:

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. (source)

In other words, if it weren’t for his family name, Montague, and the deep-rooted hostility it has with her family name, Capulet, there would be no problem for the two of them to be together. Longing for a name change, Juliet overlooks the reality that Romeo’s identity is wrapped up in his being a Montague.

In today’s liturgical readings, we have two names, Ezekiel and Jesus, both considered prophets in their own day and age. They preached truth in the name of the Lord, but both were rejected by the people to whom they respectively preached: Ezekiel by his fellow exiles in Babylon, and Jesus by his fellow townspeople in Nazareth. Why were they not accepted?
In the first reading, God is sending his prophet, Ezekiel, to those stubborn Israelites, whose very stubbornness got them exiled in Babylon. “Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.” (Ezekiel 2:4a) Nevertheless, Ezekiel is to speak the words of the Lord to them—whether they like it or not. Ezekiel, a name which means “God strengthens,” is strengthened by the Lord in the face of such opposition: the Lord gives him His words in the form of an edible scroll (Ezekiel 3:1-2), and the Lord makes his face as hard as diamond and flint (Ezekiel 3:8-9).

In the Gospel reading, Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth after beginning his ministry. What he says in their synagogue they take as offense, and what they’ve heard about him and his healings they can’t believe. They say, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!” (Mark 6:2b) So, Jesus was practically powerless to them, because they were not open to him and his divine power. They thought they knew him. “Oh, he’s just a carpenter, a Nazarene.”

You shall be known among us as Brother Luke.

When I entered the monastery ten-plus years ago, my name was Eric. My title was “Mister” (abbrev. “Mr.”). It has been a monastic tradition for a monk or nun to receive a new name. Just as parents give a name to their newborn child, my abbot, my spiritual father, gave me my name. It comes with my new identity as a monk. Monastic profession is a kind of rebirth, like Baptism. Although I am fine with people calling me by either name (especially if they are my parents), I am known in and around the Abbey as Brother Luke. And “Brother” (abbrev. “Br.”) is my title.

For the Journey:

What’s in your name(s)? What title(s) do you hold? Consider today how you could better live up to that name and title. I’ll be doing the same with “Brother” and “Luke” and “Benedictine monk.”

Reflection by Br. Luke Kral, OSB