. . . the radiance of your holy Name.
- From Canticle 13
The Book of Canticle comes from The Apocrypha, a set of writings that, as I recall, were recorded during the Babylonian Captivity. They are considered to have been too much influenced by pagan philosophy and culture and are held in a level of suspicion as to their efficacy in one's spiritual walk.
There is one line in particular, in chapter 13, that is a give-away to its apocryphal nature. But I am not going into that today. Rather, I want to focus on this concept of God's holy Name being "radiant."
A name is not a physical thing. You can't touch it or feel it. It's a word. A concept. An intangible abstraction. It represents something (someone) that you can touch and feel. As such, it takes on the qualities of that person. When you hear the name, the image of the person so named, enters into your consciousness. If you know more than one person with the name, it is elevated into an even more abstract category.
If I were talking about a person that you do not know, nor have ever seen, and said that the person's name was "Igor," you might immediately formulate an image in your mind, of what that person looks like.
When I was a kid, my family traveled to North Caroline for Easter break. We stayed in the home of some friends of theirs, which they had not seen since before they got married. This family had a son a few years younger than I - maybe about seven years old at the time. They called him "Hoss." Perhaps their hope was that, by giving him that name, he might grow to be like the gentle giant of the Bonanza television show: strong, powerful, no one to push around . . . but very kind.
It didn't work. The boy Hoss was a squirrelly, skinny, short, and not at all tough-looking kid.
A young woman found out that she was going to give birth to a boy. In selecting his name, she and her husband narrowed the names down to two, one of which was "Anthony." But the woman's grandmother protested, as the name "Anthony" reminded her of someone she didn't like.
It was if the boy didn't have a name - - - rather, the name had a boy. We attribute an awful lot of significance to a name.
Again, names do not have physical properties . . . except in the case of The Lord God. There are plenty of examples, but in the case of today's reading, we have the Name of the Lord described as "radiant." And "radiant," of course, is a visual construct.
God said "All things are possible." Of course they are! God's name itself shines brightly. When, one day, we finally fully experience eternity, we will experience it in real time. Just mentioning the name of the Lord result in a flash of light.
It's something like the words "Hocus Pocus." When stated, something visual and unbelievable happens. Except when God's name is mentioned, the visual outcome is not sleight of hand. It's real.
God's very thoughts are more real than we are. His name is more real than we are.
God is where things get real. And in a way, without Him, we aren't real either. Just call out to Him. Call on Him, by Name.
