Catechism
Catechism:
The Second Co By Rev. William M. Cwirla
“You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God.” I have a funny family name
– Cwirla. It’s pronounced as though the “C” were an “S.” It’s Polish/Ukrainian in origin, probably reflecting the Cyrillic alphabet in which the letter that looks like our “C” sounds like an “S.” My grandfather’s brother, who immigrated to Canada, saved people the trouble and simply spelled it Swirla. My grandfather, who ended up living in Chicago, spelled it Cwirla. Remember, the C sounds like an S.
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It sounds a lot like “swirly,” the thing junior high boys do when they stick someone’s head in a toilet and then flush. You can imagine why they call it a “swirly.” I’ve neither given nor received a swirly, but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been called “Swirly,” by junior high boys and even by adults who act like them. It’s not funny, but I’ve gotten used to it. It goes with having a unique name, which I’ve grown to like. People never forget my name. We hate it when people make fun of our names. It hurts. It makes us angry. God hates it, too. Unlike our names, His Name has power to save. To have God’s Name is to have God Himself fight for you. That’s why Moses was so interested in finding out the name of the God who was sending him to the Egyptians to free the Hebrew slaves (Exodus 3). God gives His Name to save, and He hates it when people use His Name for other reasons. “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His Name….” God hates when we use His Name to curse instead of bless: when we swear to “tell the truth so help me God” or “I swear to God” and then we tell anything but the truth; when we use God’s Name like a good-luck charm or a magic word (the German word in the catechism is zaubern,“make magic
