Tuesday 28th July - What is your name?

DAILY BYTE

We continue with the story in Mark 5:1-20.

In v.9 we read, “Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’”

Yesterday we spoke about the initiative that Jesus takes in coming to us for the purposes of healing and transformation. This loving, decisive initiative is part of the prevenient grace of God, which is at work within our lives long before we even know it. For the truth is that God knows the truth about us. God knows our deepest wounds, our deepest fears and our deepest desires far better than we ourselves do. God knows what we really need, and so comes to offer precisely that. God also knows all about the blockages within us that prevent us from receiving from God what we really need.

Perhaps the biggest blockage of all is our lack of awareness of who we really are and what we really need. God knows us but we do not really know ourselves. Our capacity for self-deception is immense. We are asleep to what is really going on within us. It’s easier to recognize what might be going on in others, but not so much in ourselves. Our lack of presence to our deepest selves is a significant blockage to God’s healing and transforming grace within us. Truly, our self-illusions and self-deceptions bind us.

In our gospel story, a decisive, turning-point moment occurs when Jesus asks the man, ‘What is your name?’ In the thought-world of the Ancient Near East, to know somebody’s name was to have a measure of power over them. In wresting the name of the unclean spirit, Jesus was asserting his power and authority over it. But in doing so he was also empowering the man who had been possessed by this unclean spirit. He was enabling the man to name what had taken hold of him. It was a moment of truth, that ultimately led to the man’s liberation.

A central and essential feature of recovery programmes like that of Alcoholics Anonymous is the necessity to name the truth of your condition. And so the standard way in which those in recovery introduce themselves is to say, ‘Hi. My name is…. I am an alcoholic.’ That kind of honest acknowledgement of who they are becomes the doorway through which the healing and transforming grace of God can flow. And the same is, of course, true for us all.

As Jesus takes the initiative in stepping into our lives, he already knows the truth about us. He knows who we are and what we really need. But still he comes to us with a question, “What is your name?” He’s asking us about who we are, not for his benefit, but for ours. He’s inviting us to consider the truth of our existence and to acknowledge that before him.

So how will you respond? As you reflect on your life right now, what are trying to hide from yourself? What are you unwilling to acknowledge? What pain are you carrying that you would rather deny? What dark secret are you frightened to bring into the light?

Remember, the One who asks, does so with immense compassion. He comes to open your eyes. He comes to set you free. Remember his own words describing his mission, “He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” (Lk 4:18)

‘What is your name?’ May you allow this searching, compassionate question of Jesus examine your life. And may your humble, honest response become the doorway through which his grace may flow deep within you with liberating power.

PRAYER

(Based on Ps 139)

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know everything I do, and think, and say. You understand the motivations of my heart and the inclinations of my will, much better than I do. There is no dimension of my existence beyond your compassionate embrace. Thank you that in knowing me completely you still love me with an unfailing love. Lead me in the paths of truth that I might see myself as you see me. And may the searching light of your love so illuminate my heart that I may surrender to you more fully all that is within me, trusting in your mercy and wisdom. Amen