Our Love-Name for God

Dear Friends, 

“What’s in a name?” Juliet wondered in Shakespeare’s play.

But in life, we know that names are important. They signify belonging, dignity, greatness, love and devotion. Names are most often given by someone else, although sometimes we name ourselves or change our name. Talking with a man whose baby was about to be born, I asked if a name had been chosen. “We have several,” the man said, “but we have to see her first." Almost instinctively, we name people for what we recognize as true about them  – who they are or will be for us. 

We sometimes call some people by love-names, names which resonate between us and have nothing to do with people’s formal, official names. 

When we pray as we do in Psalm 88, “I will praise your name, bless your name forever,” what is the name of God that comes to our lips?

In all of our Christian rituals and prayers, we name God "Father,” because that is what Scripture says Jesus wants us to do: “No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him.” (Matthew 11.27)

But Jesus never liked to be pinned down. Certainly, Jesus gave his disciples his own name for God: “Abba. Daddy.” But throughout his public life, Jesus showed them how he came to that name, which expressed his relationship with God.

We can certainly call God Father. We do.

But we can also imitate the process Jesus followed and probe our own relationship with God to arrive at our own love-name for God – a name to call God when we are talking with God in our most intimate and profound moments.

One woman wondered at this suggestion of finding our own love-name for God. Didn’t our theology require that we only call God Father, as Jesus did?

It’s not really an either-or, but rather a both-and. There are many appropriate responses to God’s astonishing presence in our life and world. We have only to trust the spontaneous praise that rises to our lips. God is the companion of our delight, our anger and frustration. God is the wind in our sails, our dream, our home. Let there be fresh confidence in the way we recognize God that arises in us. And as often as we can, let us dare to call God by His own Love-Name we carry in our heart.

~ Sister Joan Sobala