When God reveals his name to Moses he uses a verb that is rather hard to translate. It is based upon the infinitive hayah (to be or to cause to happen). When the “Ya” is added to it, it becomes the third person singular, masculine gender, future tense. Quite literally, it means “He who will make things happen.” However, our translations do not include the future tense. We read simply, “I AM who am.” It was not always translated so. The future perspective on the name of God seems to have been lost during the time that the Scriptures were being translated by the monks and scribes of the Middle Ages. Their experience of God was immediate. They perceived God at work in their lives in the here and now. They saw no reason to include the future tense in the name because God was really present to them in their daily lives and endeavors. So today we read: Tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you. (Exodus 3:14c)
I find it very interesting that the name of God has evolved to this form because of the reflections and considerations of the medieval monks. It helps me to understand what scholars are talking about when they say that John’s Gospel is the product of the reflections and considerations of the Christian community (of Ephesus). Just as the monks deliberately changed the way they translated the name of God, so too the Christian community changed the way that they thought of Jesus after spending hours in prayer and in communal discussions about Jesus. It’s as if John is saying to me, again rather subtly, that it is perfectly acceptable to continue the process, to continue to probe the mystery of Jesus. This is, in fact, exactly what the Church means when it uses the word “mystery.” The Gospels are not mysteries such as those written by Agatha Christie or Anne Perry, two of my favorites who challenge me to figure out “who done it.” The Church’s use of the word mystery affirms that the meaning of Christ in my life is like a rose which opens its petals slowly to reveal its inner beauty with the passage of time. As I probe ever more deeply, the mystery that is Jesus continues to develop. The image takes on new perspective, and I am drawn ever more deeply into the love that is personified in the Incarnation.
Sometimes Christians think of their faith as something that will only be fulfilled in the future. We will live with God when we go to heaven after we die. We will experience the kingdom of heaven at some time in the future. There are those who have criticized the Christian faith as a faith of delayed gratification. To a certain extent, that criticism is justified. If we are living our faith in order to receive God’s reward in the future, then we have missed the central theme of the preaching of Jesus: the Kingdom of God is in your midst. The Kingdom of God is very near. The God whose name is I AM lives with us, delivers us from sin, and makes things happen.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator