The Presentation

They brought him to receive a name.
A name which had come to them in a dream.
A name, we are told, that would be above all names. (Phil 2:9)
The name means "Consoler," "Mighty to Aid"

Once, I dreamed I would have a name.
When I was in high school, I saw myself the lead of a rock band.
Based on the sort of music I played in my bedroom,
it would have been a cross between Dylan and L. Cohen.

In my early 20s, as I returned to the Church,
I thought I would have a name.
I thought it might be, as I put it,
"A Name You Could Conjure With."
By which I meant that people would see me as dependable,
a person with integrity.
A real "Go-to Guy who gets things done."

The prophet has a word for such ego dreams:
"[your] haughtiness shall be humbled,
and [your] pride shall be brought low" (Is 2:17)

They brought him to receive a name.
A name that was born before the sun.
But he was the one who breathed life into the name.
His choices caused the name to shine.
The name is spoken on many lips
because of who he loved,
the mirror he held up.

He lived his name.
It may have begun in a dream, but he lived it.
The priest may have sealed him with the name,
but the one who was called "Teacher"
lived it.

My name came from my grandfather and his granduncle before him. I don't know if it came from a dream, or was known from the foundations of the world. I believe that, as the thinning hairs of my head are known, so am I known. I may be foolish, but it harms no one if I believe the High Holy One knows us each by name, as the unique individuals we are called to be.

I was sealed with my name when I was eight months old.
My first name is the same as His brother's.
My middle name is the same as the patron of Scotland.
And now I ask myself: "What name am I living?" —
All that has been stored up in my heart.

Lk 2:22-40