I Yam Who I Yam

 

I was stepping into the shower when the words came to me: “I yam who I yam.”  I know I heard them before, with their slang-ish pronunciation.  Where did I hear them?  Was it Popeye?  It sounds like something The Sailor Man would say.  Or was it Bluto, who spoke so naively?  And why did those words come to me, now?

As I showered and pondered, I smiled: “Well, whoever ‘I yam’, I am changing, by making myself cleaner.”  Maybe that simple thought was a good insight.  Whoever we are doesn’t mean we can’t change.  The Church teaches we are all called to grow in holiness, to become more Christ-like.  Perhaps some of us have been “who we are” for so long that we think change is impossible, so we stopped trying.  “I am a sinner in the eyes of the Church, it’s just who I am, but I believe God will save me.”  Well, regardless of what you may believe, that’s not what He said.

The Bible in a Year podcasts did a good job of explaining what Scripture says.  This year’s Catholic Catechism in a Year podcasts are explaining how words of Scripture and Tradition (which preceded written Scripture) underpin the Church’s teaching of how we should live, and why.  The first week of the daily Catechism podcasts was rated number one in the world, of any podcasts, on any subject.  People are hungry to understand.  They are hungry to see the world and their lives as they are, and as they should be, AND, why.  The catechism will provide them the soap they need to start cleaning up their lives, and make this world a better place.

I was told how the windshield of every car has lots of streaks and splotches, but we often don’t notice or pay any attention to them.  But, if we are driving into the sun, they stand out and even seem to glow --- and they are very irritating to us.  That too is a good analogy of our sins.  We often don’t notice them, or if we do, we don’t care.  “It’s just the way I am.”  But if we turn toward the light, they seem to suddenly stand out, and irritate us.  And that is a good thing.  It means we are looking at the Light; it is an incentive to change.  We want to get clean.  Even if it is irritating at the start, to see how far we fall short of who God created us to be, the irritation and the incentive to change is a blessing.

“I yam who I yam” are the words of someone in the dark, who hasn’t yet seen the light.  We can be their light.  Oh, one more thing, which I learned at my Bible Study class:  Light is silent …. But it lets them see.

The Holy Spirit and grace are the soap to help us to begin to clean up our act.  Whatever we are, we can change. And God said: “Let there be light.”