21 May 2024 Mark 9:30-37
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives Me.” Mark 9:40
Quintus, Sextus, Septimius, Octavianus, Nonnus, Decimus. Sometimes also Tertius and Quartus. These are all Roman names.
A curious feature of some Roman names is that they are also numbers. Some historians think that this reflects the fact that in many Roman families, after the second or third child, children were assigned numbers rather than names, and that is just if you were a boy. If you were a girl, you simply got a feminized form of the family name. All of Caesar’s daughters would have been called Julia after the family name Julius. If there were more than one daughter, they would get Julia plus a number.
If a child happened also to be a slave, no name was used at all. Boys were addressed by the name of their master, with the suffix –por (from puer, “boy”). So Marcipor simply meant “slave of Marcus.” Girl slaves were all called ancilla, “slave woman” or “slave girl.” Slaves often had no names at all.
There is a story about a monster who had no name. He literally had no idea who he was, where he came from, or to whom he belonged. He had no story, no history. His loneliness drove him to despair, and then to anger, and then to horrific violence. The story is called Frankenstein, but of course that was the name of the scientist, not the monster.
Roman society was not child-friendly, and especially not girl-friendly. Roman society withheld names, and so not surprisingly created its share of monsters.
So when Jesus took a child and placed him before the disciples, saying, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives Me” (Mark 9:40) He was saying something radically opposite to the custom of the Roman world, and radically healing of one of its diseases. The word Jesus uses translated “receive” is the same word used for receiving ambassadors, people of distinction and power, and they all had names.
On the way to Capernaum, we are told, the disciples were arguing among themselves about which of them was the greatest, who would get the grandest title and the corner office when Jesus finally became king in Jerusalem, who would have the biggest name. When Jesus called them out on this, they had manners enough to be embarrassed and keep silent. When Jesus put a child in their midst and said, “Make sure this one has a name; that will be the sign of your distinction,” they only sort of understood. Jesus had to explain further that if they treated people the way the Romans treated children “it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea” (9:42). Make sure they all have names – you make monsters otherwise.
When Catholics receive the sacrament of Confirmation we choose a name, the name of a saint who will be our patron, our special helper and guide. We choose a name that is already in heaven, a name that God honors and loves forever. That is the way God receives us when we claim His promises and make His mission our own. There are lonely, desperate people who want a name like that, who want the assurance that heaven can reach all the way to them, that heaven does reach all the way to them. We are that assurance when we make sure they all have names.
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