What defines us?

French philosopher Rene Descartes penned one of the most famous statements in Western history: I think, therefore I am. He understood his existence in that he could use his mind, that he was cognizant. His relation to his being, his sense of self, and of all reality was wholly bound up in the fact that he could think.

But doesn't this pose some issues?

What happens when someone is not as cognizant or smart as, say, Rene Descartes?

What of someone who is severely mentally disabled?

Is the human mind, which is all too susceptible to breaking down in so many ways, really all that makes us human?

Today we heard the familiar story of Moses questioning God as to what he shall tell the people when they ask God's name. The response is quite odd:

I am who I am.

God does not give a name. God does not list some particular attributes. God does not give some sort of description that would allow for the children of Israel to craft an image to idolize.

No. God simply, and yet every so mysteriously, states: I am who I am... and then adds, tell them: I AM sent me to you.

The response is that God is the one who is. The one who exists. Not some other lesser deities, demons, or idols, but God. It also tells us two things that will set forth the story of Israel, challenging them all along the way.

1. God will not be limited by our feeble misunderstandings and attempts to grasp at divinity. When he says, I am who I am, we could almost tack on, and nothing you do can change that, nothing you can do will limit or restrict that I am or who I am.  God is not one who is possessed, but the one who possesses.  And this is a freeing action for us in that we can never fully understand God. We cannot understand the incomprehensible, and we don't have to.
2. This establishes a relationship between God and the people of Israel. Their existence as a nation—their being, if you will—is bound up in their relationship with God. God is the one who will bring them out of Egypt to make them into a people. God is the one who will thwart their enemies. God is the one who will lead them through the desert to the Promise Land. God is the one who is.

And here is the greatest challenge to Descartes' line I think, therefore I am. It is not our thought process or our mental capacities that give us being. It is God. God who IS being itself. We are not defined by I think, therefore I am. We are defined by I am who I am. Who we are is eternally bound up in who God is. Our existence is based on, nourished by, and sustained in the One Who Is.

Is this not good news for all who labor and all who are burdened: that we are not wholly self-reliant, isolated individuals depending only on our own minds and bodies, but in fact on the God of all that is? Is this not the good news, that God is our very source of life? Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.