The Old Testament reading for today (Genesis 17:3-9) tells the story of God establishing his covenant with Abram. Before today’s scene, Abram frequently demonstrated his faith in God, even in trying circumstances. God speaks to Abram, now 99 years old: “I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and to your descendants after you, generation after generation, a covenant in perpetuity, that I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” God further promises to give Abram’s descendants the whole land of Canaan to own in perpetuity. All Abram and his as-yet-to-be born descendants have to do in return is covenant their keeping allegiance to their one and only God. To reflect these promises, God then directs Abram to change his name to Abraham.
Until recently, a name was not merely something you would call a person but rather reflected what that person was, what that person was expected to be. A change in name meant a change in the destiny of the person. The name God now gave Abram, Abraham, means that he was to be the father of a host of nations.
God goes on to promise Abraham that he will give rise to a long line of kings. As it turns out, this lineage of kings was a very mixed bunch. But no matter how corrupt they could be, the promises made to Abraham continued to be fulfilled. Paul, writing to the Romans, will speak of Abraham’s faith in God’s promise which, by that time, had been so clearly fulfilled in Jesus.
As a result of God’s covenant, Abraham, as the Gospel indicates (John 8:51-59), is regarded as the father of all God’s people. As Matthew’s genealogy indicates, he is the ancestor of Jesus and in Jesus we find the complete fulfilment of the promises made long ago. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day: he saw it and was glad.” The covenant made between Abraham and God is both sealed and renewed in Jesus Christ. And through Jesus, people everywhere become, in a special way, children of God.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus continues to challenge the Jews about his identity, and they continue to misunderstand the real meaning of what he says. “Whoever keeps my word will never see death.” This they can only understand in a literal sense. But they do see the implication of the words, that Jesus is claiming to be more than Abraham or any of the prophets. And they ask: “Who do you make yourself out to be?” This was the same question they asked of John the Baptist (John 1:22) but here Jesus gives a very different answer. Jesus makes it perfectly clear to them by talking of his “Father”, and then saying that the Father is the one they call “our God”. But he continues by saying that they do not know the Father, although they may think they do. And they do not know the Father because they do not know the Son, Jesus. Jesus does know the Father and keeps his word. Then comes the supreme provocation: “Abraham, your father, rejoiced to see my day: he saw it and was glad.”
The Pharisees do not understand: “You are not fifty yet, and you claim to have seen Abraham?”
Then Jesus makes the ultimate claim: “I tell you most solemnly, before Abraham ever came to be, I AM.” Recall that I AM is what God called himself when Abraham asked for his name. Here Jesus uses the term “I AM” of himself. He unequivocally identifies himself with God. The Pharisees are horrified by what they regard as terrible blasphemy. The term ‘came to be’ is used for all that is created, while ‘I AM’ is used only of the Word, co-eternal with the Father-God.
“They took up stones to throw at him …”, but the Pharisees were not able actually to carry out their plan to kill him because his “time” had not yet come. Then come words of prophetic significance: Jesus hid himself and left the Temple.
It is a striking summary of Jesus’ role. Jesus, the Word of God, “hid himself” in his humanity. The Godhead in Jesus, which he has just spoken about, was to remain largely concealed, except to those with the eyes of faith. St Ignatius Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, speaks of the divinity being hidden during the terrible hours of the Passion. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Philippians, speaks of Jesus “emptying” himself and taking the form of a slave.
“…and he left the Temple”. When Jesus dies on the cross, the veil guarding the Holy of Holies in the Temple split open, revealing the sacred inner sanctuary to the world. All the world could now see that God was no longer there, He had left the Temple. He now dwells in a new Temple, not now a building, but in a people, the Church, the Body of the Risen Christ.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!