When the Lord met Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:14) - Moses wanted to know what name to use when telling the people about the encounter. The Lord replied - I AM. He went on to add - I AM WHO AM. In Hebrew the name is consonants only - YHWH - which makes the name unpronounceable. This was done on purpose as the thought is - no one - is worthy of speaking God's name. Lord - God - Creator - Elohim - are all substitutes which refer to the person of God - none are the actual name. In some instances there are those who do this in writing - using Gd or G-d as acceptable substitutes. All of this is a sign of reverence - showing tremendous respect for the One whose name cannot be spoken by anyone.
I recently came across a blog post from 2019 in which that person claimed that the Vatican had been hiding documents that Pope Francis had released in 2017 revealing the name of God. What that person was oblivious to was that nobody has ever hidden the name of God as spoken to Moses. That name - which must not be spoken - out of reverence - known to Moses and the world since that time - never hidden from anyone. That person declared some conspiracy at the Vatican - revealed their ignorance. Anyone with some sort of intelligence understands that out of reverence - God's name cannot be spoken by anyone.
As we spend our days contemplating our relationship to God - better to focus on the - Us. Your relationship with God - my relationship with - He whose name cannot be spoken. It is in developing our personal relationships that we come as close as possible to our creator. Through prayer - worship - adoration - meditation - spiritual reading - we can know the person of God. In that regard - His name - becomes inconsequential.
Deacon Dale
