You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
He is truly risen! Alleluia!
In today’s gospel, Jesus confronts His fearful disciples with a reality meant to not just reassure them, but to give them the strong, solid, everlasting reality of Who He is, the Way, Truth, and Life.
As in several occurrences in John’s gospel record of Jesus’ life, Jesus uses the term I AM. Those words, seemingly simple to us, when rendered in Hebrew give us the name of God. Remember that when Moses asks God for His name, God replies, I AM.
That term is so sacred that most devote Jews will not say the whole word. In English, when we say God, they will render it as G-d. In Scriptures, when the name of God is used it is rendered ‘the LORD.’
When Jesus speaks these words at His trial before the Sanhedrin, the Chief Priest tears his robe. Although the Chief Priest was expressly forbidden to do that, he did it anyway as an expression of horror and outrage upon hearing what he considered Jesus’ blasphemy.
Jesus is telling His disciples, as well as all of us that He is God. He is telling us who are fearful, often confused, timid, easily scared by the unknown that God is the Way, Truth, and Life.
If we take Jesus’ own proclamation and our own profession of faith seriously, we allow God’s reality to penetrate our existence. We grab unto the confidence that God-reality entered our world to offer us His way, truth, and life as our strength.
We have been called into that light. As St. Peter says, we became living stones and are solidly built into a spiritual house.
As people built into a spiritual fortress with Christ’s light in us, let us face every challenge with the confidence and security God Himself offers us.
