(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Mass-Blog-for-the-Third-Sunday-of-Lent-2025.mp3)
Mankind’s most serious sin is taking the Lord’s name in vain; not so much the GD and JC stuff, but the big I AM. We don’t often appreciate the importance of what saying I AM means. Moses did. Our first reading this Sunday is about his experience with the burning bush. He saw this shrub on fire but not being consumed. Moses, being a Godly man, suspected something Godly going on and went closer to inspect. Then he heard:
“Moses! Moses!”
Moses answered, “Here I am.”
This is a popular response to God’s call in the Old Testament among some of God’s greatest servants. Isaiah and Samuel also respond that way under similarly pivotal circumstances. In this reading from Exodus (Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15) God himself claims ownership of and identity with those words. He tells Moses he intends to rescue the Israelites through him and instructs him in how to claim authority when instructing them:
“This is what you shall tell the Israelites: ‘I AM sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”
But the Israelites used the Lord’s name in vain throughout their trials in the desert despite Moses’ leadership. “I AM hungry. I AM thirsty. I AM tired. I AM sick and tired. I AM out of faith in you and God!” Their stiff-necked ways went down in history, surviving the centuries so that even St. Paul knew of them and used their belligerence as an example to instruct the Corinthians in staying faithful to the great I AM, as we see in our second reading (1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12).
All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer.
In our gospel reading (Lk 13:1-9), God’s son, who said “I AM the way, the truth and the light,” tells us a story illustrating why taking I AM’s name in vain is such a mortal offense. In short, it works against humanity’s mission to be fruitful.
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
Jesus is the gardener and I AM his tree. If I don’t do something with the second chance he gave us, my claim of being related to Him will be in vain. By attaching “here” onto “I AM,” we can join Him, Moses, Isaiah and Samuel in volunteering for fruitful service in God’s name.
–Tom Andel
This is a great perspective on how limited we are in trying to understand the mind of God. We just don’t possess the capacity to relate.
As Isaiah clearly stated:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Psalm 147:5
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
Yet our prayers should be to use the power of the spirit given to us at baptism to more fully grasp what the Great I Am has in store for us.
Earlier in 1 Corinthians Paul states:
But as it is written:
“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,”
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
He is and I’m not!
Thank you for this wisdom, Thomas. It’s a good reminder to surrender our lives to God’s purpose and to find meaning in living our lives–not necessarily for personal happiness, but for the joy of knowing we’re acting as agents of God’s will in the lives of others.
Great insights here to add to Tom A’s message
Blogger’s Note: We received the following comment from Rev. Skip Wilson, a faithful reader, mentor and Brother in Christ, and he gave us permission to post it:
A couple of thoughts. My Master’s thesis was on the “I AMs” of Christ. He laid claim to being God (Deity) every time He used the phrase ” I AM______”
It is the “High Holy Name” of God. It is the name describing His perfection/holiness—this is a very deep and broad discussion. The Tetragrammaton, is the closest form of a written name of God–YHWH. Notice-No Vowels Closest “translation”–Yaweh–LORD. We eventually translated it to Jehovah.
” I AM” was so revered that the Jew would not dare try to say it, so as to avoid violating the Commandment.
This took me in a different direction as I read Tom’s opening and the paragraph of the Israelites in the desert. It took my mind to Mt 25 and the judgement against nations. Paraphrasing, but we see the Lord tell us I Am to those in need. That is how Jesus comes to us both in our ministry to the needy and in our own brokenness, through acknowledgment and opening ourselves to his healing grace, especially during this powerful season.
Hope I didn’t detract from the message Tom was going for but that is what I took away personally. God bless all!
Interesting take, Mike. When I look at Matthew 25, there’s a portion of the judgment where Christ says, “I WAS.” I WAS hungry and you gave me food, I WAS thirsty, and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” God is identifying with the poor of the world so WE can identify as God’s servant, saying “Here I AM, send me to do your work.” So, in a way WE ARE identifying with God in answering prayers. Thanks for feeding us that food for thought!