Our profession of faith begins with
God, for God is the First and the
Last, the beginning and the end of everything (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 198).
Everything we believe, and in fact, everything that we are
depends on God. He is one, without limit, and Lord over heaven and earth. The
people of Israel tell us this about God in the Hebrew Scriptures, and they knew
because He mercifully chose to reveal His own name to them:
To disclose one’s name is to make
oneself known to others; in a way it is to hand oneself over by becoming
accessible, capable of being known more intimately and addressed personally (203).
God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush as YHWH,
or “I AM WHO AM.” This name reveals
everything about God, but at the same time, it reveals almost nothing. It 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…” (206).
The name indicates that God is hidden, yet very much present
at the same time.
