I AM

Taken from ‘His Life is Mine’ by St Sophrony of Essex

How can one describe the state of the spirit to whom God is revealed as I AM? His closeness to one’s heart is so tangible that joy in Him is like light. He is kind and gentle, and I can speak to Him intimately, face to Face, address Him- ‘HE WHO IS’. And at the same time I realise that this I AM and this HE WHO IS is all Being.

He is unoriginate; self existent; self- sufficient. He is Person in the absolute sense. His consciousness penetrates all that exists. ‘For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known…Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered’ (Matt 10:26, 29-30). ‘ And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.’ (Heb 4:13) Every moment of our life, every heart-beat, is in His Hands. He is in truth the ‘Light in which is no darkness at all’ (1 John 1:5). And there is no one and nothing that can escape His all-seeing eye.

I AM THAT I AM. Yes, indeed, it is He Who is Being. He alone truly lives. Everything summoned from the abyss of non-being exists solely by His will. My individual life, down to the smallest detail, comes uniquely from Him. He fills the soul, binding her ever more intimately to Himself.

Conscious contact with Him stamps a man for ever. Such a man will not now depart from the God of love Whom he has come to know. His mind is reborn. Previously he was inclined to see everywhere determined natural processes; now he begins to apprehend all things in the light of Person. Knowledge of the Personal God bears and intrinsically personal character. Like recognises like. There is an end to the deadly tedium of the impersonal. The earth and the whole universe proclaims Him: ‘Heaven and earth praise him, the sea, and everything the moves therein.’ (Ps 69:34). And lo, He Himself seeks to be with us, to impart to us the abundance of His life (cf. John 10:10). And we for our part thirst for this gift.