From Deacon John

God has lots of names, but we usually refer to him as "the Lord". This is a translation of the Hebrew word "Yahweh", (or Jehovah), a word so solemn that Jews only use it in prayer.

When Moses asked God what his name was, God replied "Yahweh". And as you might guess, "Yahweh" simply means "I am", "I am the one who is" or "I am who I am". Maybe that's because we can't tie God down. God simply is.

The trap we can easily fall into is to think that we know God. But God is eminently greater than anything we can ever understand or anything the human mind can conceive of.

Today's gospel reading presents us with an example of this. It's fashionable these days to speak about a God who is so loving that no matter what we do we will never be punished. Yet God does not seem to think so. Jesus reminds his listeners of a recent disaster where a tower collapsed in Siloam and 18 people were killed. They were not expecting to die that day but it turned out to be their last. And then he goes on to explain the need for repentance. You cannot wait until tomorrow to set your lives right, he says, because tomorrow may be too late. God does not impose good behaviour. Nor does he ignore our choices whether good or bad.

Sometimes we think we know God. Yet most of the time we struggle even to know what his name means. All the more reason to repent today.