Can you imagine how frustrating that would be?

You’re at the kiosk at a government office.  You’ve got all the documentation… the photo id… birth certificate… you’re a nationally recognized tv sports commentator… heck, your show is being played on the flat-screen that hangs just behind you.

“I’m Damian Goddard.”

“Uh, no you’re not.”

“I tell you!… I AM DAMIAN GODDARD!”

“Sir, please keep it down or I’ll have to call security.”

“Why won’t you listen to me?  I have everything you need right in front of you.  I am who I say I am!”

(The government worker continues to stare blankly into my eyes as the words drip from a mouth in full sneer…)

“Prove it.”

Prove it.  Huh.

Can you imagine how livid you’d be?  Can you imagine how justified  you’d be in turning the place upside down due to the egregious injustice being forced upon you?

Now.  Forget, for the moment, you’re some high-falootin’, tv sports dude.

Imagine, for the time being, you are The One.  The Son of God.  A man, known to near everyone around him – friends and enemies alike – as a particular Jesus of Nazareth.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is engaging the Pharisees.  And because it is the Gospel of John, I try to pay close attention to how many times, and under what circumstances Our Lord uses the words “I AM”.  Today, he says it three times in the matter of a few sentences.  Three.  Times.

I am God.

No, you’re not.

I am God.

No, you’re not.

Yes I AM.  I am God.

No.  You’re.  Not.

YHWH.  I AM WHO AM.  Begotten.  Consubstantial.  Incarnate.

And these Pharisees, tethered to the Mosaic law, could not even recognize the very Reason, Logic, and Word engaging them.

Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear.  Please let us be not caught up in man, but caught up in You.

——————–

Post-script

By the way, did you catch that INCREDIBLE Gospel commentary from St. Augustine?  That “light” is in Heaven, and on Earth.  At the same time.  And a Catholic Priest, through the very working of the Creator, makes time and space come together at the consecration of the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament, the Body, the Blood, the Soul, the very soul-jarring Divinity of Our Lord, Our Saviour… Jesus Christ.

Good God.  Sweet, sweet Father in Heaven who Loves me more than I can ever possibly fathom… I mean this; thank you.  Thank you, oh so much, for my being born into the Catholic Church.  The One True Faith.

Yours faithfully,

Damian Goddard.