In 2011, more than 200 hundred girls in India took part in renaming ceremony. This celebration was an opportunity to change one’s name. One of the girls whose name was Nakusha changed her name become Sakshi (witness). Why did Nakusha have to change her name? Because Nakusha means Unwanted.  And there are many other Nakusha in India who suffered because of this name. One of them said, “I felt guilty about who I was all the time. When I used to introduce myself, people used to laugh and bully me. That is what I most remember—feeling really hurt about my name.” Now she changed her name become Shruti means revelation.

In today’s gospel we listen to the story of the baptism of Jesus. It is interesting to reflect upon the voice that came from heaven, “you are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased. This is the voice of the Father. The Father calls his son beloved. If we continue reading this gospel, or from Mathew, after his baptism, Jesus was tempted by the Satan three times. Jesus was tempted to be a powerful, so that many people will praise him. But three times Jesus reject the temptation. Because Jesus knows who he is. He knows that his father loved him and no need for him to become another person to be loved. He knows that the love of the father is without limit.  The love of the Father is forever. 

When we were baptized, the priest mentioned our name and baptized us in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In baptism we become the beloved daughter and sons of God. In the book of prophet Isaiah, said, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. I have written your name on the palms of my hand.” He will not forget us. And he calls us tenderly by our own name. Sometimes we don’t want to be ourselves. And even we don’t want our own name. We want to become another person.

For us Christians, the name is not only to reveal our identity, our name, but it is also to signify our mission. After his baptism, Jesus started his public ministry, preaching the Kingdom of God. By entering into the Jordan River, to be baptized, Jesus enter into our human condition and embrace all our experience. He was tempted like us. He crosses the river in order to free us from our enslavement. This reminds us to the story of exodus when Israel cross the Jordan in order to enter the promise land. Jesus wants us to cross together with him so that we become free people and knowing that we are the children of God. Jesus rise from the river to raise us up to the Father because our true home is not here in the world but in the Father’s house. That is why in the baptism we die in Christ so that we will rise with him in the resurrection. Let us follow Jesus, entering, crossing our world with conviction that God never abandon us for He is our Father and we are his children. And he always calls us by our own name.