As humans we are relational creatures and our identity is rooted in relation to others or certain attributes. Take my name for example :"Celestine"; it brings little meaning by itself because it is just a mere word but when it's in relation to other words/images such as: "male", "Catholic", "psychology student", "Tan", "Chinese" and so on, I have built some sort of identity for myself. Notice that I am in relation to my gender, religious beliefs, major, surname (i.e. clan/family) and race (i.e. my features/culture); without these I have virtually no identity - which goes to show how relational we are and how we are dependent on relationships just for the mere sake of establishing an identity. Interestingly when Moses asks God for His name to convey to the Israelites (Exodus 3:13), God answered ""I am who I am." and God told Moses to tell his people that "I AM" sent him (Exodus 3:14, NIV). Both "I AM" statements are very significant because it shows how independent God is from all creation; perhaps this is because God Himself is already relational within (i.e. the Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) and as God He is never lacking.
Now let's make a detour back to topic of us being in relation to words/images. These words which we use to establish our identity are also in relation to other words/images. For instance, the word: "Catholic" conjures up words/images such as "univeral", "crucifix", "nun", "priest", etc. And these words which are related to the word "Catholic" have other words in relation to it also. So you see words are also dependent on other words/images to establish its meaning - or else words would be meaningless.
In the same way this applies to us. If our identity is rooted in things which are dependent on other things for meaning, we lose our identity as soon as these things loses its own meaning or its meaning becomes ambiguous. A common example would be the issue of race; What makes one Chinese? Almond-shaped eye? Fair-skinned? What about people whose mother is Chinese and father is Indian - what race are they? Should they follow the race of their mother's or their father's? etc.
My whole point is this: what better way to establish one's identity than in relation to God who is, who was and always will be eternal and forever? :)
I am first and foremost a Child of God.
Amen.
2 comments:
Interesting interpretation of I am Who Am or in Hebrew, Ehyeh asher ehyeh or what we simplify to YHWH or Yawhweh....in the CCC number 207: it states that God, who reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them, which is similar to the scripture passage that states that I AM the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, the God who Is, Who Was and Who is to Come. The God who remains constant and the same as it was before, during and after with no changes whatsoever. The Eternal and Perpetual God.
Therefore, when God calls himself I am Who Am, the reason of such a name was that, in the Beginning I AM or He is there, as in the now, I AM as in He is here and in the future, I AM as in he is there and still the same as the one in the past and in the present.
In CCC 206, it states further clearly that In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.
Therefore, the interpretation that God is independent HAS to be further strengthened with the reasoning that not only is he the Creator of all things and therefore, being the creator he therefore depends on no one but all depend on him, but he is also the one who is always constant and therefore that he is the same God that our Ancestors prayed 2 and will be the same God our desendant will pray 2. (have wanted to stress that point of "He who is, who was and who is to come" which you stressed in your last chapter, which literally is the explanation for I am who AM since our conversation on this matter)
Anyway, what is identity? but rather how we allow ourselves to be identified by others but most importantly, how do we identify ourselves..how do we view ourselves? A true child of God? or someone who view ourselves not worthy of his infinite mercy?
yeah..true!
We are first and foremost the sons and daughters of God. Me, myself also always had the problem of establishing my identity coz of my name,my looks, my race and surroundings. Talk about being a "rojak"
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