Gospel Reflection for The 17th day of July in the year of Our Lord, 2025
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. 29 Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. 30 For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.
Today's Gospel reading is one of the most simple, beautiful and comforting passages from the Bible. But, I want to focus on today's first reading:
Moses, hearing the voice of the LORD from the burning bush, said to him,
"When I go to the children of Israel and say to them,
'The God of 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."
Why does God say that His name is I AM? I AM is not a name. In fact, the name of God is not known and should never be attempted to be spoken by man. The Jews wrote His title as YHWH, which was essentially unpronounceable. It is said that in ancient Israel, only the high priest was allowed to use this name once a year. In recent decades many Protestants have begun to not only call God “Yaweh”, but to insist that this is the title which God must be called. Although this is very prevalent among Seven Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and so called “Torah Observant” Christians, it is not exclusive to fringe Protestant groups. My mother attended a Presbyterian college in the 1970s and her professors insisted that all students not refer to “God” but to call His name Yaweh. This was not the intent of the authors of the Bible and is actually blasphemous. The angels do not dare call God by name, and neither should man. God is too awesome to be truly conceptualized by His creatures. To call one by name is to be familiar with one on a human level. The almighty Father is far beyond being grasped by the human mind. Just as God commanded that idols not be made to represent Him or false gods, man should not attempt to call God by name.
I AM is the nature of God. These two words are a simple statement, but should show us the impossibility of our limited minds in regard to the Almighty. Only God truly is. He has no beginning or end. There is not a time when God was not and there will never be a time when God is not. Everything He created is bound by time and space. God, through His grace, gave me an immortal soul. But, there was a time when I was not. Even the sun and the planets have not always been and will not always be. Only God truly is and in Him we “live, move and have our being.”
God is so powerful that no one can know His nature. The Bible says that no one can see His face and live. No one may speak His name. Only in the person of the Son, Jesus, did God humble Himself to show us both His image and to take a name with which man may be familiar and intimate. When we realize that almighty God became like us, lowering Himself to even being tortured and killed by finite beings, we should truly be overwhelmed. For thousands of years, no one on earth could fathom such a thing could happen. Now, too many take it for granted. A revival of reverence is sorely needed in all of Christianity. In Catholicism, this begins with liturgy.
Judson Carroll is the author of several books, including his newest, A Daily Catholic Devotional, Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings July-December, 2025 It is Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5BHFZ7X
and
Confirmation, an Autobiography of Faith. It is also Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNK
His podcast is The Uncensored Catholic https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-uncensored-catholic
Yes, indeed! Shout it from the roof tops!!!!!
In Ex 3:14 God says to Moses: "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: I AM sent me to you.” But although Moses had asked for a name, as you say Judson, “I AM is not a name.” However, the very next verse supplies the name: 15 God also said to Moses, “You will say to the children of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, sent me to you.’ This is my name forever. This is the title with which I will be remembered from one generation to the next.” Here ‘Yahweh’ is the transliteration of the Hebrew, whereas “the LORD” is the translation of the Hebrew adonai which is what Jews say when they read the Hebrew ‘Yahweh/YHWH’.
While some claim that the transliteration should be Jehovah, that ignores the fact that Hallelu-YAH is the same in all languages - meaning praise-Yah(weh).
One only has to read the psalms to see that David frequently used the name Yahweh. In many English Bibles the Hebrew YHWH/Yahweh, is represented as ‘the LORD’, using all CAPITALS). But the name Yahweh, makes much better sense than the title Lord. E.g., Ps.7:18 I will offer thanks to Yahweh because of his righteousness, and I will sing hymns of praise to the name of Yahweh Most High.
Similarly Ps.8:2&10 O Yahweh our Lord [Yahweh adonai] how glorious is your name in all the earth!
Ps.9:11Those who revere your name place their trust in you, for you never abandon those who seek you, O LORD.
This Yahweh God Most High is the One whom we are urged to love with our body, mind, soul and strength and who repeatedly, throughout the Bible, expresses His heart that “They shall be my people and I shall be their God. Halleluyah!