The name of God

In today’s first reading (Ex. 3:13-20), Moses asks what name he should use in referring to God.

Much ink has been spilled over the millennia in trying to understand the Lord’s first answer.

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."

For various reasons, there has even been uncertainty regarding how the word here translated as “I AM” is pronounced. There are also important metaphysical and ontological meanings to be derived from this word as they may apply to God (especially within an Aristotelian or Thomistic framework).

While it would be difficult to go fully into these discussions here, there are a few special insights in this name of God that present important meaning for our lives.

• First, there is the basic fact that God is giving us his name: a special act of openness and even friendship to us.
• Furthermore, this name is mysterious, as God is mysterious: ultimately beyond the limits of our imagination and greater than any problems we may have.
• Even so, this name also tells us something about God’s own nature: tied in some way to existence itself. St. Paul touches on the meaning of this in a borrowed line of poetry (Acts 17:28): `In him we live and move and have our being.' God exists and all things exist because of Him. All things may pass, but God will always be there.
  

But God does not stop there with this amorphous, existentialist title – he goes on to identify himself this way:

The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob...

This is not the cold, abstract God of the philosophers: this is a God who enters into human history and human relationships. Nor are we alone in our relationship with God: we are part of a great people and family of God, reaching its full perfection in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – the ‘name above every other name.’

The ‘wondrous names of God’ are many, but it is hard to equal these ancient names from today’s reading. When we feel overwhelmed or lost, it is good to remember these most precious names of God.

I am the God of your fathers – of your mothers and of every member of your family going back to the beginning.

And no matter how dark life may seem, there is the comfort of this most special and powerful name of God:

I am.