Namesake

Hello everyone,

I almost shut Jesus in the garage today. Fortunately, he got out just in time.

The other day, my mom informed me that he had gotten in a fight in our neighborhood. He wasn’t too badly hurt, but he had some scratches around his mouth and, most alarmingly, a little piece of his tongue was missing. Jesus is usually known for his amicable nature, so this came as a bit of a shock.

Our neighbor named his cat Jesus because, as he explained, “Jesus is one of my heroes. Why wouldn’t I name my cat after him?” Fair enough. And the name isn’t as unsuitable as it could be. It’s not as though Jesus is a mean cat. He’s not power-hungry or bent on vengeance. In fact, with his frequent friendly visits to our house, one could even wonder if he has evangelistic intentions, though it may just be the belly-rubs he gets.

So although he may be more interested in scatology than in eschatology, and he’s certainly no messiah, I don’t have theological problems greeting Jesus by name when he comes to meet me in the driveway when I come home. That said, his name hasn’t quite become normalized yet, and my parents and I can’t talk about him without a giggle or two:

“Lucy [the neighbor’s dog] and Jesus are good friends.”

“Is Jesus looking a little plump to you?”

“I think Jesus has been pooping in the flowerbed again.”

Some figures become so well known that their names almost become definitions in and of themselves. We could hardly name a pet “Napoleon,” or “Hitler,” or “Aphrodite” without consciously referring to the characters the names evoke. Their names are so thoroughly integrated into our culture that using them to denote something other than their popular meaning catches us off guard.

A lot of humor comes from these kind of intentional misunderstandings. And I’m sure that my neighbor was certainly expecting, if not hoping for, comedic results by naming his cat after the leader one of the world’s major religions. But though this may not be intentional, I think that another part of what he is doing by calling his cat Jesus is making the name common again. Especially in English-speaking countries, we’ve put the name on such an altar that it almost always refers only to the figure in the Christian tradition. This isn’t always the case, though. In Spanish countries, for example, Jesús is a fairly common first name. In fact, part of the beauty of Jesus’ name is that it was so ordinary in the time and culture in which he was living. When God chose to become human, he came as a commoner, taking a common name.

I’m sure some highly religious folks might manage to summon up a fair amount of indignation regarding the cat’s appellation, but I expect his namesake wouldn’t mind at all. In fact, I imagine that they’d actually get on quite well together. I suspect that Jesus the god-human and Jesus the cat would have a nice chat, probably peppered with fish metaphors, followed by an afternoon nap.

If they do, though, I hope they keep out of the garage.

Have a good week,
Sarah/Mouse