I AM So You Are

There is One who simply IS. I AM, He calls himself. He who holds all things in existence, He who is closer to us than we are to ourselves, for we cannot hold ourselves in being.

Yes, I exist, but is that what it means to BE?

I grope in the darkness of error.

I live outside the Father’s house.

I wander lost amid the distractions of the world.

I am dead in my sins.

I stumble down the wrong path in life.

I wither away, dry, empty, weak.

I hunger and thirst but nothing satisfies.

My own nothingness confronts me. Surely this is not what it means to BE. Where do I turn that I might BE? He who IS speaks to me:

I AM the light of the world.

I AM the door.

I AM the good shepherd.

I AM the resurrection and the life.

I AM the way, the truth, and the life.

I AM the vine.

I AM the bread of life.

From nothingness to true BEing: I AM enlightens me, welcomes me, finds me, raises me, guides me, enlivens me, satisfies me. He does not want me merely to exist—He wants me to BE as He IS. He wants for there to be one where once there were two. He wants me to share in His life and to let His life be mine. And so He made Himself food that His BEing might be mine.

Being God, You made Yourself food to come into me and there diffuse in my heart and mind that splendor of Truth, the glory of the Divine, the radiation of all the Trinity. You did not want any distance to exist between Your soul and mine.

Your love went to the ultimate limit. You loved me to the end. In the Eucharist You are God with us and God in us, transforming us into You and making of two lives, one. (Blessed Conchita, I AM, p. 42)

I AM, Jesus whispers.

I am, my heart murmurs in return.

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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permision)