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Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

How many times have you had a conversation with another person and neither of you can remember their name. And so what happens is that you go round the houses describing the person until at last you can remember their name. As soon as this happens the whole person becomes clear. We can see this person in our minds eyes.  So a person’s name is very important it gives us an identity. This is why the first question that our parents are asked at the Baptism is “What Name do you give your child?”

In today’s Gospel Jesus calls his followers by name and they followed him.  It says that “At Once they followed him.”  God also calls us by name he knows and loves us so much that he knows us by name. As it says in Johns Gospel I do not call you servants anymore but I call you friends. So if he knows us by name then we can also strive through prayer and study to get to know Jesus by name as well. This may sound a bit strange but let us look deeper at this.
We may know him in the head but we must strive for that personal relationship with him just like the people that we call friends and know by name. By our relationship with Jesus we can then make his name know to others.  This happens in prayer but also in study. It is about getting to know the person of Christ the one who loves and cares for us. By looking at the life of the saints and understanding their own journey into love and helping us understand our own journey.

So Jesus by name is vital in our Christian journey. There is a danger though.
This week we commemorate holocaust memorial day, when we look back at this horrific time in history where peoples inhumanity to man really showed forth we can see that one of the first things that the Nazi’s did was to take away their names and give them a number. They were something that was sub human.  I hope and pray and I am sure most of you too as well that this kind of Genocide never happen’s again. And yet there are times with all of us where we have made people feel less than human. We seem, to lump all people together: the Muslims, The young people, the Homeless the Polish.  We also let prejudice and fear over well us and so we in our own way are over ridden and forget that they are individuals and loved by God just as much as we are. We overcome our prejudice and fear by learning and education. Our duty as Christians is to learn and also to give a voice to those who are unable to speak for themselves. We are called by name to follow Jesus who loves us. Let us not forget to call others also by their name so that they can be in relationship with Christ.


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