In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The first [point], I had preached on this—on this aspect of giving the name. It is the same sermon, the same Gospel that we have today. The Gospel in which the name of Jesus is given to the child Jesus. They gave him the name. Who? His parents. And I had explained well that this power of giving the name belongs to the parents, and that He who gives them this power is God himself, because it is God himself who causes them to become parents. There are those who try to become parents and there is nothing. It is God who gives that power. In giving this power to become a child, to become a parent, He gives the power to impose the name.

And you see, the name is not something spiritual. But yet, no one contests the parents' power to give the name. And no one is ridiculous enough to say, "No, wait until he is grown; he will say for himself what he wants to be called." That is just for giving the name. But with this child, we are parents not only of his body, but also of his soul. And what is more important is not the body; it is the soul.

That is why parents do not have to wait until the child is grown to give him a spiritual, religious matter. That is why parents do not have to wait until the child is grown to say, "Will you be baptized or not? Will you be Catholic like us or not? Or will you be Muslim?"—even though we are Catholics, we your parents, we are Catholics. It is ridiculous. It is the parents; they have this power that was given to them. They decide.

You see, that is why for Jesus, Joseph and Mary give the name. I was saying, God does not replace the parents. If He gives the power to be a parent, it is not to replace them. He respects what He does; He is not going to come and give the name in their place. But for Jesus, however, He sent the angel to say he must be called such and such, but on the "D-day," the name must be given. Eight days after his birth. It was not the angel who came. It was not God who came. Joseph and Mary did their work.

So, we have this power to give the name and we give names to many things. What does this signify? It is that we have a certain power over what we name. Parents have the right to give the name because they are the parents; they have power over the child. It is not the State that gives the name. It is not the State that gives the name. It is the parents. And even in our customs, we have rules that say who must give the name. Whether there is a dowry or there is no dowry—if there is a dowry, here are the rules. If there is no dowry, here are the rules. It is like that everywhere in the entire world. When a child is born at the hospital, for example, they ask: "How do you want to name this child?" Sometimes the woman will say, "Well, you must call my husband," [and] there is the name. It is a power. From that moment on, the parents exercise their power.

And last time—it does not stop there, and I will only talk about it on Sunday—an aspect of this power that continues. Every time we name, we manifest a certain power over the thing we name. You see in countries, they are going to inaugurate things—a hospital, a school—and they give a name. Who gives the name? It is the one who has the power to do it. Sometimes it may be the Head of State, sometimes it may be a minister, the deputy, the senator. There is always someone who has that power. The one who gives the name.

We give names to ships. We speak of baptism. We baptize ships. Who baptizes, who gives the name to the ship? We are going to give names. Who gives the name? It is the one who has that power. And you have countries that say, "No, we are changing the name; we are no longer called as we—no, we are no longer called like that." In Africa, from one day to the next, they say, "No, we are no longer called like that." But who can do it? Those who have power over that country. And they will force everyone to change. Just as parents, when they give the name to the child, they will force everyone to call him that. And they said it is Jesus; we are not going to call him Jacques. They say, "No, no, no, that is not our child. Our child is not called Jacques. We did not give him that name. The name we give to our child is Jesus. So please respect our power; call our child Jesus." Even the state will not go and change the name. "Well, you called him... ah, okay, we write it down, that is the name." Respect this power.

You have a fairly recent example that is not in Africa: Turkey. In English, its name is the same word used to say the bird that is called the guinea fowl [turkey]. It is the same word. Written the same, pronounced the same. So the name of the bird and the name of the country are exactly the same. Same pronunciation, same spelling. But not very long ago, the Turks said, "Ah no, we are changing because—there it is—the name of the country resembles that of a bird." No, no, no, they changed. In English [and] in French they continued to call it "Turquie." Who had the power to do it? The Turks themselves. And the English speakers, they are forced to choose that name there. In any case, officially in official events, you must use that name; otherwise, it is a problem. People will say, "But no, we told you we are no longer called like that. If you call us that, there is a problem with that power."

And you see in the scriptures, it is very clear. After having created everything, God presents the creatures to Adam, and it is written: to see what name Adam will give them. So that manifests Adam's power over these things—that he will call them this or that. There is that name; it is written that as Adam named [them], that is how we call those things. But this power—he gives the name. Have you ever seen an animal give a name to anyone? A plant give a name to anyone? A river give a name to anyone? You see, we come, we find a river, we give a name. It was called the [Ganges?], it is called the Nile, it is called the Niger. Different peoples give different names. That is the power that God gave us. We give a name. It is found everywhere. Who said she is called [Eve]? It was not herself. [Eve] did not say, "Well, I call myself..." No, Adam said, "You will be called [Eve]." It was not herself; [he said] "You will be called [woman/Eve]."

So, we have this—this power to name. For example, in our adventure, we ourselves gave names. "Well, we are going to call [ourselves] Our Lady of Perpetual Help." No one came from outside to say, "You must call yourselves like that." They said, "No, no, no, why that name?" It is not that; it is the name we took. Everyone respects it. They say, "Well, it is your thing, it is your adventure, it is you who started, it is you who have that." Perhaps one day we will sit down [and say], "Ah well, that name, we are going to change." And we change, like the Turks changed, like the African countries changed names, because it is our business.

In the scriptures, you have the example of Abram who becomes Abraham. It is God who changes his name. God directly. God who gives us the power to name, to give names to things, to persons. He comes directly, He says, "Abram, you will no longer be called like that. You will be called now Abraham." He also changed the name of his wife. Later, we have the example of Jacob. You know, he fights this angel, and at the end there [the angel] says, "You can [no longer] be called Jacob, but Israel." We have the example of Jesus himself with his disciples. He says, "You, Simon, you can [no longer] be called Simon; you will be called Peter." Now we call him Peter, Saint Peter.

Sometimes, therefore, God indicates the name to the parents. Thus He did for Jesus; He said, "You shall call [him] Jesus," but He also did so for John the Baptist: "You shall call him John."

So dear parents, we will continue in this vein next Sunday. You have received from God himself the power to name, to give the name, but it does not stop there. It is a beginning. And we will continue next Sunday. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.



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