Reading the Bible is absolutely essential for the Christian life. St. Jerome in the 5th century put it more bluntly, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” The Bible it’s like water to a fish. All that we do, most especially as Catholics during the Sunday Mass, is layered with Sacred Scripture, from the priest's vestments, the gestures we do during the Holy Mass, to our architecture. Nothing is by accident in the liturgy. My hope as your pastor of St. Mary’s is to help people fall in love with the Bible. 

Today in the Gospel reading, Jesus again uses another famous phrase that a first century Jewish person who was familiar with their Old Testament Bible, would have immediately recognized. “I am the vine, you are the branches.” (Cf. John 15:5). Jesus wasn’t simply using a gardening analogy to connect with an agrarian culture; he was doing something much more radical and provocative. Knowing their Bible, the first century listener to Jesus would have made the connection to the “I am” statement found in the Book of Exodus 3:14. This is where Moses famously goes up to Mount Sinai and receives the Ten Commandments from God. As he is conversing with God, he asks the commonsensical and obvious question, “What is your name?” What a fantastic question to ask God! Who am I talking to? We have to remember at this time in human history, the notion of one true God is absolutely foreign.  

This is a time period where having multiple gods is the norm. We have the different gods of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, just to name a few. So Moses, understandably, wonders, “Which one am I talking to?” This is where God responds with the divine name, a defining moment that would alter the world forever: “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.” (Cf. Exodus 3:14). God is telling Moses I am not one of these fake gods that humanity has concocted. That time is over. I am now ready to reveal myself to humanity, beginning with the Jewish people. All of this is in the background of today’s Gospel passage. When Jesus says “I am,” he is appropriating the name of God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai to himself. This is why the message of Jesus Christ was and continues to be, an explosive, life-changing proclamation. Jesus is God walking among us. He is the fullness of God’s revelation to humanity. As if this one statement is not enough, Jesus will go on to say “I am” a total of seven times in the Gospel of John: I AM the Bread of Life (John 6:35), I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12), I AM the Door (John 10:9), I AM the Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14), I AM the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25), I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), I AM the Vine (John 15:5). 

The more we know and love our Bible, the deeper our Christian faith becomes.