YOUCAT Question n. 31 - Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 31 - Part III. Why does God give himself a name?

(Youcat answer - repeated) God gives himself a name so as to make it possible to address him.      

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 208) Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness (Cf. Ex 3:5-6). Before the glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips" (Isa 6:5). Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Lk 5:8). But because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: "I will not execute my fierce anger… for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst" (Hos 11:9). The apostle John says likewise: "We shall… reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything" (1 Jn 3:19-20).       

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) God does not wish to remain incognito. He does not want to be revered as a “higher being” that is merely sensed or surmised. God wishes to be known and to be called upon as someone real and active. In the burning bush God reveals to Moses his holy name: YHWH (Ex 3:14). God makes it possible for his people to address him, but he still remains the hidden God, the present mystery. Out of reverence for God, the name of God was not (and is not) spoken in Israel; the title Adonai (Lord) is substituted. This same word is used by the New Testament when it glorifies Jesus as true God: “Jesus is Lord!” (Rom 10:9).

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 212) Over the centuries, Israel's faith was able to manifest and deepen realization of the riches contained in the revelation of the divine name. God is unique; there are no other gods besides him (Cf. Isa 44:6). He transcends the world and history. He made heaven and earth: "They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment... but you are the same, and your years have no end" (Ps 102:26-27). In God "there is no variation or shadow due to change" (Jas 1:17). God is "He who Is", from everlasting to everlasting, and as such remains ever faithful to himself and to his promises. (CCC 213) 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. (End)

(The next question is: What does it mean to say that God is truth?)