Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 19, 2007 - Fifteenth Thursday in Ordinary Time
[Exodus 3:13-20 and Matthew 11:28-30]When I go to the children of Israel and say to them, "The God your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?" God replied, "I am who am." Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: I AM sent me to you."
What's in a name? The Shakespearean question is an important one. The name by which we are called identifies us not only personally, but as a member of a family and often our ethnic identity. My father would use the expression when I asked him about someone I heard about: "I know that name...", meaning he knew of the family and its reputation. When God created Adam, Adam was given the right to give names to all the animals. To invoke a person's name in the Old Testament meant to make that person present in some fashion. Therefore the act of God giving God's name to Moses is a supremely important moment. The name identifies God as the source of all being. Indeed, God is no longer just "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God has a name: I AM. When Jesus began to use the expression, I AM, he immediately encountered resistance in those who (ironically and correctly) thought he was identifying himself with God even though he (Jesus) seemed to his listeners to be a mere carpenter from Nazareth. Great spiritual writers such as Meister Eckhart and Thomas Aquinas noted the tremendous spiritual bridge in the words, I AM. When Jesus came, he represented, in the flesh, the reality of God. In Jesus we have, as it were, the Burning Bush personified. There have been many efforts to "represent" God and many efforts to prevent God from being "imaged." The Trinitarian "triangle," the Old Guy in the white robe in Michelangelo's CREATION, the three figures in Rublev's icon - are feeble but popular examples. Ultimately we are left with the voice in the burning bush that says, I AM, and those words-made-flesh in Jesus. What's in this name? Ultimately everything! AMEN
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