“If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘the God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”God replies, ehyeh asher ehyeh, which translates to “I Am who I Am”, “I am what I am”, or “I will be what I will be.” According to the New Oxford Annotated Bible, it can also be understood to mean, “I cause what which is to be.” God continues by telling Moses to say to the Israelites that, “‘I am’ (ehyeh) has sent me to you” (Ex. 3:14b). He continues,
“Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD (YHWH), the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’”Therefore God uses three forms of the divine name to Moses: ehyeh ahser ehyeh, ehyeh, and yhwh, all derivatives of the verb “to be” (hayah). In addition to Exodus 3:14, there are only three other times where the Old Testament has God referring to himself by using the “I am” name: Isaiah 41:4, 43:10, and in 46:4. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says,
“The revelation of the ineffable name 'I AM WHO AM' contains then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the Church's tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is.” (#213)
“In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ('I AM HE WHO IS', 'I AM WHO AM', or 'I AM WHAT I AM'), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the 'hidden God', his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.” (CCC #206)The second commandment directs us not to “take the name of the Lord in vain” (Exodus 20:7; see also CCC #2142-2149). The Jewish people took this commandment seriously to the point of not ever pronouncing the name of the Lord. (In fact, only the High Priest would pronounce the name during Yom Kippur. Perhaps the fact that Jesus is comfortable uttering this name is an allusion that He is the High Priest?) This is why the Divine Name, “YHWH”, when read in scriptures, is replaced by the word “LORD” (Adonai) in small caps, and since ancient written Hebrew used no vowel markings, we can only guess at the exact pronunciation of “YHWH”. When not reading the Torah, most observant Jews refer to the Sacred Name simply as Ha Shem, or “the Name”. John has Jesus identifying himself with the Divine Name numerous times, not just with the seven “I Am” statements, but also in several other instances: with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (which is the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Lent, John 4:26); with the disciples during the storm at the Sea of Tiberias (John 6:20); with the “Jews” during the Feast of the Tabernacles (John 8:58); and to the soldiers during the arrest scene (John 18:5 and 8), to name four. In total, Jesus refers to himself with an “I am” saying forty-six times in the Gospel of John, as opposed to only twice in Mark and Luke and only five times in Matthew (see Matthew 14:27, Matthew 14:27, and Mark 6:50, where Jesus says, “It is I.”) According to the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, there are three types of “I am” statements:
Pope Francis continued his cycle of catechesis on "Jesus Christ our Hope," as part of the Jubilee 2025. This week, he reflected on the mystery of the Presentation of the Lord and how Mary and Joseph obeyed "the Law of the Lord and [...] all its prescriptions."
We begin our annual pilgrimage of Lent in faith and hope with the penitential rite of the imposition of ashes.
Pope Francis continued his cycle of catechesis on "Jesus Christ our Hope," as part of the Jubilee 2025. This week he reflected on the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, writing that the Magi "are men who do not stay still but, like the great chosen ones of biblical history, feel the need to move, to go forth. They are men who are able to look beyond themselves, who know how to look upwards."
In his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Francis continued this cycle of catechesis on "Jesus Christ our Hope," as part of the Jubilee 2025. This week he reflected on the birth of Christ and the visit of the shepherds, saying that "God, who comes into history, does not dismantle the structures of the world, but wants to illuminate them and recreate them from within."
Pope Francis invites us to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, that the ecclesial community might welcome the desires and doubts of those young people who feel a call to serve Christ’s mission in the priesthood and religious life.