I AM WHO I AM

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Exod 3:1-8,13-15; Ps 103:1-4,6-8,11; 1 Cor 10:1-6,10-12; Lk 13:1-9

The Revelation of God’s holy Name

As we progress in our Lenten observance and journey towards the Paschal celebration, our understanding of God’s holiness and the demand it makes on us increase. The reading from Exodus tells us of God’s call and revelation of his name to Moses. An essential background to the story is the call of Abraham and the covenant God made with him. We read about that last Sunday. The understanding of the story of the enslavement of the children of Israel in Egypt and the vocation of Moses to lead them out is firmly rooted in the covenant relationship God established with their forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By agreeing and entering the covenant with God, Abraham offered himself and his progenies as a sacrifice to God’s plan for the salvation of the human race. Recall that God promised to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars or the sands on the seashore. God consecrated Abraham and his promised numerous descendants to his plan for man. The enslavement of children of Israel in Egypt and the afflictions they suffered therein were constitutive parts of the plan of God. Their enslavement and afflictions were for their purification and furtherance of God’s plan. Purification and consecration define our association with the holy God.

Their purification made them ready and worthy to receive the revelation of the holy name of God, which is the access to the Promised Land. Moses experienced the holiness of God in blazing, but non-consuming fire. God's words expressed the meaning of the sacrament to Moses and the Israelites. “I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow, the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.” These people live in the said geographical location, but it is not a Promised Land to them; Hence, there is no milk and honey there for them. These will only flow for the people consecrated to the Lord. The presence of the Lord, into which their purification admits them, is the source of all good things. Their sufferings and afflictions in Egypt were preparation to receive the Promise or enter the blessed presence of God. His presence with them in Egypt, directing and moderating the purification process as he revealed, shows the goodness of whatever he allows for their purification. The bush ablaze with fire, but not consumed, is just a symbol of God’s holiness and the goodness of his plan for each and all of us.

The awe-inspiring revelation of God and his foreknowledge of all things and events are captured by his revealed name. Moses was surprised at God’s knowledge of the people's plights and his failure to do seemingly nothing. He asked for the name or the identity of God. “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I AM’. This, he added, ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” The first thing we understand from the most sacred name of God, ‘I Am who I Am,’ is that God is not affected by anything but acts in all things. Everything serves his divine purpose, for he calls all things into existence. Every training or purification is to bring us, his people, into the knowledge of his holy name. God is all, and we are nothing but the work of his hand. The affliction of the people prepared them for the revelation of the most holy name of God, which is access to communion with him.

Saint Paul confirms this divine intention in his first letter to the Corinthians. He proposes that every experience of the people of Israel, their afflictions in Egypt, their journey with Moses through the desert, and the spiritual food and drink God gave them through Moses, was to initiate them into the mindset of the covenant relationship with God established with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was for them to understand the supreme holiness of God and themselves as nothing but his creatures, called to inherit his goodness. The failure to imbibe the covenant mindset, and faith in God, made many of them unsuitable to receive the Promised Land. “They were all baptised into Moses in this cloud and in this sea; all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them as they went, and that rock was Christ. In spite of this, most of them failed to please God and their corpses littered the desert.” The milk and honey were already with them; for these are sacraments of his presence. Saint Paul implies this by mentioning spiritual food and drink instead of manna and water from the miraculous rock in the wilderness. The milk and honey that make the Promised Land is a reference to the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which is the sacrament of his real presence among us.

We reach or receive the reality of these sacraments only through faith in the word of God. Without believing in the real presence of Jesus Christ in our Eucharistic celebration and our Christian journey, we risk missing the Promised Land. In the parable, Jesus told his audience and those who brought him the news of Pilate’s slaughter of some Galileans who were offering sacrifice, and also referring to the accident that claimed eighteen lives at the tower of Siloam, he teaches us to understand every opportunity and events of our lives as God’s way of preparing us to live in harmony with his divine will and to achieve his holy purpose in our lives. Conversion and faith in God’s holy name offer us the best attitude to receive his Promised Land—I Am who I Am—this is our inheritance. When we believe in God’s name, we sing continually of his goodness with the Psalmist. “My soul, give thanks to the Lord all my being, bless his holy name. My soul, give thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings.”

Let us pray: O God, author of every mercy and of all goodness, who in fasting, prayer and almsgiving have shown us a remedy for sin, look graciously on this confession of our lowliness, that we, who are bowed down by our conscience, may always be lifted up by your mercy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.