"Faith is not the clinging to a shrine,
but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.
Audacious longing,
burning songs,
daring thoughts,
an impulse overwhelming the heart,
usurping the mind —
these are all a drive towards serving Him
who rings our hearts like a bell."
Abraham Joshua Heschel is in the prophetic line of Jewish poets.
He chooses metaphors for God with the instinct of Isaiah, an inner sensitivity to the power of an image created by association.
"Him who rings the heart like a bell" is a quite extraordinary way of referring to God, until you begin to think of the rich resonances struck by the image of the bell.
The alarm bell warning of danger, the bell inviting to dinner, the chimes of the bell on a clock reminding of time's transience, the musical notes that ring true from the integrity of the bell and clapper, the ringing of celebration and the ringing of summons to worship; God is each, all and more than these.
And Heschel places that subversive metaphor after listing some of those inner moments of urgency, whether fear or surprise, that sometimes overtake or overwhelm us. And when they do, they strike the heart, and the purity of the note and clarity of the sound are evidence of that integrity by which our whole being resonates in sympathy with the touch of God.
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