A New Name

Sun. 21th Week Year A

Gospel (Mt. 16, 13-20)

Jesus asks His disciples who they say He is and Simon responds for them all by saying, “You are Christ, the Son of the Living God”.  Jesus tells Simon that he is blessed because the Heavenly Father has revealed this to him.  Then Simon receives a new name and a new mission.  He now is called “Peter” and holds the keys of the Kingdom.  A beautiful dynamic is taking place here.  God the Father reveals to Simon Peter that Jesus is His Divine Son and the One Anointed by the Spirit.  Then in Peter’s dialogue with Jesus, Peter’s own identity is revealed to himself.  As we come closer to Jesus, the Father gradually reveals His mystery to us.  This is to be expected.  But it is a shock to realize that Jesus is actually a mirror who reveals our own mystery to ourselves.  He speaks our name; not the name that our parents gave us but a new name that only He knows and only He can say.  It is the creative name that He continues to utter at every moment of our existence.  And it is the name by which the Good Shepherd us to follow Him.  When a Poor Clare postulant becomes a novice, the abbess gives her a new name that she has received in prayer from God.  This name symbolizes the new novice’s special call and new mission in the Church.  The girls who came to the Come and See Day at the Poor Clares were blessed to have this Gospel preached to them this day.  Pray for them now as they continue to discern their call.