Called By Name

In a recent New York Times article,¹ it was reported that elephants apparently have their own language and call each other by name, and that “social bonding is fundamental to everything about elephants.” What really caught my attention was a statement by a researcher, Dr. Wittemyer, who said that this commonality between elephants and humans might well benefit elephant conservation efforts, because it might “help us recognize ourselves in them, which is the only way we seem to understand anything.”

Unfortunately, human understanding does seem to be limited by our need to relate everything to our own experience. We find it hard to believe that any non-human form of life (plants, for example) may have its own type of consciousness if it doesn’t communicate through sound, use tools, and live in social groups as we do. God, who knows us intimately, understands our need to recognize ourselves in the things we relate to and came up with a very creative solution in order to be known by humans — God took on flesh and became one of us in the person of Jesus.

Now we know that God is compassionate through Jesus’ acts of healing. We know that God is forgiving through Jesus’ parables. We know that God grieves through the tears Jesus shed when his friend Lazarus died. We know that God suffers through Jesus’ passion on the cross. We know that God raises everything that dies to new life through Jesus’ resurrection.

God is so much more than we can grasp — and yet, thanks to the Incarnation, we know enough to trust in a God who loves us, walks with us, and continually calls us to new life. That grace is more than we could have hoped for at this stage of our unfolding existence and is a cause for deep gratitude.

1.     Golembiewski K. Every Elephant Has Its Own Name, Study Suggests. The New York Times, June 10, 2024.