The Holy Name is the mystery of mysteries, the sacrament of sacraments and symbol of symbols, no mere sign, but an integral symbol of the wholeness of being. The Beloved Disciple transmits revelation of the Name without predicates in the Fourth Gospel, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM,’ (John 8: 58) and with predicates, ‘I AM the way, the truth and the life,’ (John 14:6). So before foundational prophecy, the Name saves and ‘I AM’ as way is the truth of our life. The Name illumines all who come into the world, unveiling Christ to be both first and last, beginning and end through whom everything arises. In him, all things cohere, and his co-inherence means that all things come from the Father through him and return to the Father through him. The Name unveils the truth, goodness and beauty of God in glory so that all the treasures of wisdom are made known. The function of mankind is to restore the wholeness of creation broken by the angelic fall and the Name ‘I AM’ is the wholeness of Christ in action healing the wound. THEOSIS, deification, is simply realisation of the Name, actualisation of Christ’s divine humanity in us, without confusion or division. This mystery of mysteries remained hidden until Christ unveiled the Name but unveiling happens whenever wisdom imparts the Name and Christ was the Word naming the Name long before Jesus was born. God’s Name is indeed way, the way of wholeness, ‘I AM’ being the truth of our life.
All wholeness inheres in ‘I AM’ as way, and this is the truth of all life. Through the Name, in ‘I AM,’ all things co-inhere with Christ, being anointed with his Chrism. To pray the Jesus prayer is ultimately to awaken to God whose Name this Chrism reveals. To confess Jesus is ‘I AM’ is to experience Jesus as the Christ, which is impossible outside the Chrismating grace of the Holy Spirit. The Name is light from light, God from God, the only-begotten ‘I AM’ ever-present and ever-aware in our midst. The name Christ refers to this hallowing Chrism that assumes our humanness and makes us whole. The name Jesus means ‘I AM’ saves, so when we turn and see him in the midst, we are released. The Name ‘I AM’ is divine-human but there is neither confusion nor division here, rather a healing wholeness that cures confusion and division. ‘I AM’ is the Name above all names which transmits completeness, imparting wholeness even in the incompleteness of our shattered brokenness. There are no sectarian monopolies of wholeness separating what Christ unites, no exclusive divisions that destroy the wholeness of the Name. The Name is known by many names in different traditions but remains the Name above all names in all of them. The Name is the same yesterday, today and forever, creating creation anew in every moment.
‘I AM’ is God’s Name, revealing God, restoring wholeness to all. The recapitulation of everything in Christ extends his wholeness to all, descending to hell to raise hell to heaven. In Christ, ‘I AM’ is the principle of all things, restoring wholeness to brokenness. As way, the Name is truth lived in many wholesome ways. The wholeness is always a coincidence of opposites that transcends every monism and every dualism. Christ in his Name ‘I AM’ is a mystery of conjugal union, of sacred conjunction, lived from the centre. This is wisdom’s vision of the glory of the Name, lived as mystery from that ineffable centre where all centres coincide. It is the Name lived as centre that is the symbol of all symbols and the mystery of all mysteries, embracing all congruent symbols with a hallowing wholeness. The Spirit’s transmission of the Name ‘I AM’ transmits communion as union that proceeds from the Father to abide in the Son. This imparts Holy Trinity to all even if there is no recognition of the fact. It receives recognition and becomes explicit through the remembrance of God, remembrance that hallows the Name. The Kingdom comes when the Name is hallowed and glory increases wholeness of being, ‘I AM’ in glory, treasured, loved and known.