The art of listening and learning makes a great teacher. However, all types of listening and learning may not make the best teacher. A genuine teacher chooses the content of listening and learning that holds on to universal moral principles. If not, a ‘fake teacher’ with unauthentic values may be created. In other words, all cannot become teachers, since teaching is the sacred responsibility of handing over the insights of sacred listening and learning. Then, the question arises, ‘can a person who wants to highlight his or her own selfish and relative ideologies (like a corrupt politician or a religious fundamentalist) become a teacher’? No. Even though many claim to teach or instruct others, all are not teachers since they may not desire the common good of the society based on the values of humanity.
A genuine teacher not only does ‘verbal teaching’ but also ‘lives out one’s teaching’. We are familiar with the dictum, “an ounce of practice is worth more than tonnes of preaching.” One of the best examples of those who practiced their teaching is Jesus Himself. He ‘listened and learned’ from the Father and demonstrated his ‘love teaching’ on the cross, giving his own life. Therefore, the art of listening and learning from the ‘Teacher LOVE’ is essential to become a genuine teacher in the present times. One of the narratives in the New Testament that highlights the importance of ‘listening and learning’ is the passage about ‘Bethany School’ (cf. Luke 10:38-42), a School that was not affected by the ‘virus of fake propaganda’. What do we mean by ‘Bethany School’ here? Bethany is recorded in the New Testament as a small village in Judaea. It is in Bethany that the house of the siblings Mary, Martha and Lazarus was situated. Symbolically, if we consider the house of Bethany as a School – Jesus as teacher, Mary and Martha as students – what are the insights we get? Since everyone, in one way or the other, teaches the other, the insights from the ‘Bethany School’ would give birth in us a genuine teacher. The lessons we learn are clearer from the expansion of the seven alphabets of the name ‘BETHANY’.
Fr Dr Binny Marydas
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