For if you do not believe that I AM

Nm 21,4-9; Ps 101; Jn 8,21-30
9 APRIL

Every Word of Jesus contains an eternal truth that must be traced out, allowing oneself to be illuminated with the powerful light of the Holy Spirit. Some words require an even more intense and brighter light. A simple flame is not enough. A Word that requires all the power of Light is that which Jesus makes echo in the ears of the Jews: “I have told you that you will die in your sins; in fact, if you do not believe that I Am, you will die in your sins”. What high and universal truth did the Holy Spirit enclose in this sentence? Sketching an answer is neither simple nor easy. Jesus is: “I Am”. “I Am” is the very essence of God. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob and the God who reveals himself to Moses is: “I Am”. I Am is the eternal Being, which is not from anyone. If he were from someone he would not be “I am”. Not even from himself God is, otherwise he would neither be God nor eternal, also because no one is from himself. All creation is from God. But God is not from God. He is Eternity. God is the Being that has not received the Being, but who gives the Being to all that exists.

Who is Jesus? He is “I Am”. Jesus is God. However, He is God from God and Light from Light. He is from the Father, because from the Father he was generated in the beginning, in Eternity. He is God that is from God, but he is always turned towards God. Not only that. He is also God made flesh. The relationship between Jesus and the Father is Sonship. Jesus is the eternal Son of the Father. The difference with every other child born on earth is infinite, eternal. Every child born on earth is a child but with an autonomous, independent and personal nature. Jesus is the eternal Son of the Father, but as a Person it is distinct from the Father and is generated by the Father. As nature it is the same eternal nature of the Father. In the one and only eternal nature and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit subsist. The eternal Son of the Father became man. He came to dwell among us to make us true of his truth and to fill us with eternal life as He is eternal life. Enveloping us with his light, as He is light. It is He the only name in which it is established that we can be saved. It is He the mediator of truth, grace and life of the Father. It is He the Redeemer and Saviour. It is He the way that leads to God. Everything must be done in Him, with Him and for Him. If the Jews do not believe that Jesus is “I Am”, they will die in their sins, because no man, not even Moses, might free them from their slavery of death and from their darkness.

He said to them again, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said (to them), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

What Jesus says to the Jews is valid for every man, but above all it is true for every one of his disciples. Every Christian must believe that salvation is not only for Christ, but also in Christ and with Christ. It is for Christ because He is the only Redeemer, the only Saviour, the only Atoner, the only Mediator, the only way, truth and life. It is in him, because no salvation might be accomplished outside his body. One becomes the body of Christ, one remains the body of Christ and he is saved. One gets out of the body of Christ, he does not live in the body of Christ, there is no salvation. He is with Him because he is with every other member of his body. Salvation is lived as the community of the redeemed in Jesus the Lord. Salvation is lived with him if it is lived in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. If we do not believe that Jesus is “I Am”, that is God, we are before a man. We do not need him.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, give us the purest faith in Christ Jesus God and Son of God.