So we can picture God (figuratively, since who can humanly understand God? ) acting with feelings of love and making a reasoned choice when God chooses people according to His heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Jeremiah 3:15; Acts 13: 22). God's heart is deeply troubled by people's sins (Genesis 6:6). God leads His people with an upright heart (Psalm 78:72). "In an incomparable and truly dramatic way, (the prophet Hosea) says that God's heart recoils within Him and His compassion grows warm and tender (Hosea 11:8). God is animated by a truly passionate love of human beings." (Cardinal Walter Kasper, in "Mercy: the Essence of the Gospel.")
But God's Love far exceeds human love because it is united with mercy, or "hesed," "which means "unmerited loving kindness, friendliness, favor, and also divine grace and mercy. Hesed, therefore, goes beyond mere emotion and grief at human deprivation; it means God's free and gracious turning toward the human person with care." "Hesed" is God's ongoing attitude towards us, not just a single action here and there in our lives. God's ongoing loving kindness and mercy burst beyond all human categories!
God is all-powerful, all holy. Why would he concern Himself with our petty, paltry human lives, our sufferings which are so often self-caused? Why should God bend down to hear the laments of the poor and the miserable and empower them so that they can resist oppression? Why should God concern Himself with us again and again when we are unfaithful to Him again and again? Why? Why does He forgive us and give us second chance after second chance when we deserve His just punishments?
The heart of God, His "hesed" " is beyond any response to us which a human being would give us. God's merciful heart reveals more radical generosity towards all of us than we can even think of or imagine. If we read and pray with the Biblical story of Exodus, we can see how God reveals His heart.
Moses, the Jewish infant raised by the Pharaoh's daughter, has run away and hidden in the mountains of Midian among the shepherds because he killed an Egyptian soldier who had hurt a Jewish slave. One day he sees a thorn bush, which burns but does not burn up. Awestruck, he hides his face and takes off his shoes, recognizing that he stands on holy ground. God's Voice speaks to him out of the thorn bush, and His Voice reveals a heart of passionate concern for His Jewish people who are slaves. He sees their misery; He hears their cries.
"I have observed the mystery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians." (Exodus 3: 7-8; cf. 9).
Kasper observes:
"God is no deaf and dumb God; he is a living God, who attends to human misery, who speaks, acts, and intervenes, who liberates and redeems. The formula 'Yahweh who has brought us out of Egypt' becomes the fundamental statement of faith in the Old Testament."
Moses asks this wonderful, mysterious Being His name and receives the mysterious answer " I am who I am." What does this mean? What does this mean for us?
This Tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters YHWH, so sacred that Jews may not say it out loud) ) have been translated "I will be present as the One who will be there." God's Name, chosen by Himself for Himself reveals that he promises to always be with us, to be present to us, to hear us, see us, respond to us, protect us. God will always personally care for us, throughout the history of His people! He has been with all living things from the beginning of creation and He will always lead us into a new future, a future that will culminate in eternal, transformed life, a new heavens and a new earth.
God is not tied to a particular time, a particular place. To blow dust off a Bible and relegate its importance to a time over a thousand years ago is to miss its importance for the Ever-Now. God is I AM, or, in another translation, "I am the one who is" - always and eternally alive and with us. God is ready to act with power in our particular circumstances, our misery, our enslavement to whatever keeps us from being a free and fruitful child of God.
But when God gives each of us His Heart, He also literally gives us His Heart so that we can love as He loves, to the best of our ability. Reflecting on the Burning Bush episode, Mirabai Starr sees God's call to Moses as a call for Moses to take on God's Heart, to become a prophet. She says of Moses "Forced to flee the only home he has ever known, Moses takes refuge in the mountains of Midian, where he marries the daughter of a local holy man and embraces the simple life of a shepherd. He would gladly remain anonymous forever, but one day the Holy One beckons him from the heart of a desert bush that bursts into flame before his eyes.
"Moses," He calls. And He repeats, more loudly this time: "Moses!"
"Hineni. Here I am," says the shepherd.
"The voice ...reveals the prophet's task. Moses is to return to Egypt and rescue his suffering people from the yoke of slavery and deliver them to a land flowing with milk and honey...."
When Moses protests - the Pharaoh will never let them go, and besides, Moses has a speech impediment, God tells him "I shall be with your mouth and teach you what you should say."
Moses goes. And God goes with him.
God always gives us His heart, unreservedly, and asks us to carry His heart with us wherever we go. The question of our lives is this: Can we, will we say "Here I am" to our Divine Lover, wherever we are, whatever He asks, even though we are reluctant and afraid? When God gives us His whole heart, can we do less than give Him our hearts, and choose to love with His? Can we believe that God will also give us His mouth - so that we can speak from His Heart?
Mirabai Starr says eloquently that all of us are called by God to be His prophets, to speak of the concerns of His Heart with His mouth:
"The call does not come softly. It bangs the shutters of your heart and wakes you from a deep sleep. It drenches your conscience; your cup overflows with the fire of global suffering. You have no choice but to respond.....
"You would do anything to avoid this task. You are busy, tired, overwhelmed with problems of your own. Besides, you are shy. You dread making a spectacle of yourself. You are not qualified to address the social injustices and environmental catastrophes you see looming everywhere. You are no scientist. You have not studied economics or practiced community development. You will sound ignorant, hysterical, and no one will listen. Pick someone else.
"But the call is unrelenting. A tangible presence beats like wings against your heart. A voice whispers in your ear 'People are good. They just don't realize that their individual actions matter. If they knew, they would change. Tell them now.'" ( from "God of Love.")
Do we accept the Heart of God, the God of Love Whose Love surpasses any love we've ever known, or could imagine? Can we accept God's Heart, place it in our breasts and love with It instead of our own? Can we say "Hineni, Here I am," knowing that wherever we go, God goes with us?