Day 29: Knowing the Name of God

In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name 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: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men. CCC 206

God's "I Am Who I Am" name has always struck me as revealing that He is so ineffable that He isn't even bound by a clear name, for nothing can fully describe Who He Is. God is everything, existence itself. All life, love, and grace come from Him. In St. John's Gospel, Jesus echoes Exodus 3:14 in at least two places:

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... Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (John 8: 27-28; 58)

It is no wonder that those who didn't believe in Christ were so shocked and "picked up stones to throw at him" (John 8:59). He was equating Himself with the ineffable, eternal  God, the "I Am Who I Am" of Exodus. Jesus "doubles down" even more in John 10:30 by saying "The Father and I are one". Aghast, in their murderous anger they again wanted to stone Him yet could not.  

I like how the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it for this section:

God is existence himself, but he has entered into our lives and put himself into our story... When we realize who God is and who we are, we realize our own smallness. We realize his glory. We realize his faithfulness and our faithlessness. This is a God who loves us, who draws near to us. (p. 62)

Burning Bush painting by Sebastien Bourdon