Who Is My Teacher?
By Eileen Dooling, RSM, Executive Director
Posted on
In October of 2017, a favorite blogger of mine and a friend of Mercy by the Sea, Omid Safi, wrote a blog on the On Being website, entitled How Can We Live Beautifully in an Age of Vitriol. I have been re-reading this lately as the vitriol in our country disappoints and demoralizes those of us who believe in conversation and an honest exchange of ideas.
Omid, Director of the Islamic Studies Center at Duke University, turned to his Muslim faith when struggling with the question of living in the age of venom and hatefulness. His blog focused on an incident in the Libyan resistance to Italian fascism between 1911 and 1931. I quote:
“After thousands of their countrymen were imprisoned by the Italians, the Libyans were able to capture two Italian soldiers. Many of the Libyans wanted to execute the Italian prisoners in retaliation. Omar Mukhtar (the leader) refused, stating this was not the way of Muslims. The folks who had argued for killing the prisoners objected, ‘But the Italians killed our prisoners.’ Omar Mukhtar softly responded, ‘They are not our teachers’.”
As liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, pro-Trump people and anti-Trump people exchange rancorous allegations, and those who feel attacked experience the need to respond in kind, I recall those words, “They are not our teachers.” And quietly I think, “We are better than that.”
But we do have teachers, as Omid points out. Scripture is our teacher. Jesus and Muhammad, Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Desmond Tutu are our teachers. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama are our teachers. Friends, who call us to our better selves, are our teachers. And if we look inside and listen to the core of our being, we may find that our hearts are our teachers too. In this our day, we must be very careful about whom we allow to be our teachers.
Omid Safi will be with us at Mercy by the Sea November 2-3 to lead a program entitled Radical Love: The Legacy of Prophetic Traditions. Perhaps you may want to join us to engage with this teacher of our time.
May peace be yours in these troubled days.
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