WHAT'S IN A NAME?




















In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Most people who say the Rosary—and many who don’t—know the prayers begin with the words: “Hail Mary, full of grace.” Yet, the words the angel says are a little different. He doesn’t address Mary by name, saying instead, “Hail, full of grace” (or, “Greetings, favored one,” and variations of the same). In doing this, he is effectively NAMING her “full of grace”! Anyone familiar with Scripture would know that people in the Bible are given names describing their character. 

And sometimes these names are changed. “Jacob”, for instance, means “deceiver”. It was changed by God to “Israel”, which means “he who prevails with God”. As there was a change in character, there is also a change in the name. Similarly, “Abram” means “great father”. It was changed by God to “Abraham” meaning “father of many”. There are two other people whose names were changed by God. One was “Sarai” which meant “princess”. God changed it to “Sarah which was an amplified version of the same thing. And, of course, we know he changed “Simon” which meant “he was heard” to “Cephas” or “Peter” which meant “rock”. 

So when the angel is addressing Mary as full of grace (or favored one), he is actually doing something very important. He is stating who she is, and this is not something that necessarily follows from that moment on, as in the case of Abraham and Israel, but something that has always been the case and always will be the case. The same applies to Jesus. The angel who appeared to Joseph said to him: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”) (Matthew 1:21-23). So, whenever you read the Bible from now on, try to find out what the person’s name means. Not only is it a fascinating exercise, you might learn about the parents’ reaction to the birth of their child, a possible message from God about the person, or an indication of a new beginning or new direction in a person’s life.

Oh, and in case you are thinking I forgot to mention Paul — wasn’t his name changed from Saul to Paul? — I didn’t forget. I’ll let you figure out why he didn’t make the list!

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here: https://youtu.be/-VvW5d9HPEo


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