March 30, 2011. Homily, Tuesday, April 12, 2011,

John 8:21-30.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: "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. 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 have 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.

The Gospel of the Lord.

God the Father spoke to Moses in the burning bush. Moses asked his name. What am I to answer when they ask for your name. "Tell them I AM WHO AM sent you to them." Thus the name of God the Father is I AM which for the Jews is YAHWEH.

Jesus says in this gospel of John, "You belong to what is below; I belong to what is above. You 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 the Jews said to him, "Who are you?" Here we have the answer first, "that I AM" and then the question, "Who are you?" I AM is God the Father's name for Himself.

Then Jesus goes on to theology, "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." Those who do not believe that Jesus is God and that when Jesus was crucified, he died for the sins of all mankind, will not have their sins forgiven and thus "will die in their sins."