Dear Brothers and Sisters,
God has so many names in different cultures of the world, probably we can count to the thousands. But there is one single name of God that has fascinated me over many years. That is the name “I Am Who I Am” or, short form, “I Am” when God told Moses His name:
Moses said to God, “They ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. This is what you are to say to [them]: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation. (Exodus 3:13-15)
If God’s name is “The Supreme Spirit” or “The Utmost Almighty”, I wouldn’t be surprised, but “I Am Who I am” or “I am” really challenge my intellect.
Imagine you go to a company to meet someone about a potential contract, you ask your counterpart: “May I know your name?” and he answer, “My name is I Am Who I Am, or I Am for short,” what would be your reaction? “Thank you, Mr. I Am Who I Am”?
Strange as it is, it has a deep philosophical meaning. Usually, each of us has a name with a meaning. Say, Dũng means courageous, Hùng means the bear or hero as anh hùng, Huệ means lily, Mai means plum blossoms… But you really can’t give God a name with an attribute, because God is Absolute. God cannot be limited by any attribute. So, the name I Am Who I Am contains nothing that can limits God. That is really superb philosophical thinking. ( I am assuming that some philosopher gave birth to that name of God. The faithful may tell me: “You idiot, there was no philosopher. That is God told Moses what God’s name was.” “Yes, Sir, Amen.”)
Anyway, the absolute name of “I Am Who I Am” is very much similar to the name of the absolute nature of everything in the universe in Buddhist philosophy: Không, the Void. The ultimate nature of everything in the universe, the foundation on which everything stands, is the Absolute, therefore there is nothing that we can use to name the Absolute, so we call the Absolute “The Void” or “Không.”
(It sounds almost like “Nothingness” of existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Satre, but the Void, Không, is not Nothingness. It is the Absolute – the ultimate nature of everything and the foundation on which everything and every phenomenon exists and stands. This is very similar to the concept that God is the cause and the foundation on which everything and every phenomenon exists and stands. God of the God-based traditions is not much different from the Void, Không, of the Buddhist tradition – both are the Absolute foundation of all things. The only difference is that God is a personality and the Void (Không) has no personality).
So, that is God’s name I Am Who I am.
But God’s short name “I Am” is even more intriguing.
How many times in a day you say “I am”? – I am a teacher, I am sick to day, I am running late, I am going to the supermarket, I am happy, I am very disturbed…
Every time you say “I am” you repeat God’s name.
What does that mean?
That means, you are so close to God that you can’t even understand how close you are to God.
You are an image of God, no more no less.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
So, brothers and sisters, every time you say “I am” in the day, you are calling God, because you are so close to God, you are a part of God with God’s likeness in you.
You have the Spirit of God in you:
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
YOU ARE A PART OF GOD. YOU ARE HOLY.
Just remember, every time you say “I am” you are calling God’s name and reminding yourself that you are a part of God and God is in you.
How sacred and wonderful that is.
With compassion,
Hoành
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