This morning's Speaking of Faith featured the life and work of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. If you missed it, I highly recommend checking it out - they've got a podcast you can download if you don't get the program on your local public radio station.
I knew nothing of Heschel prior to hearing the program, so I found it quite fascinating. He worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. on the civil rights movement, protested the war in Vietnam from a religious standpoint, and worked to foster cooperation and understanding among different faiths by highlighting their commonalities and emphasizing the call of any individual linked to the divine to ultimately do his or her best to serve humanity.
His social advocacy efforts and perspective on prayer, faith, and one's relationship to God spoke very directly to me and my own spiritual journey and questions. I think his take on Judaism and religion in general seem to sync up with my take on Unitarian Universalism and the humanist aspect of that faith.
As a mystic, transcendental poet, and activist, he strikes me as an enlightened guy - and he certainly has been heralded by some as a prophet. It made me realize I know very little about prophets or enlightened teachers from multiple faiths; it's something I'd like to learn more about in the coming years.
Such men and women inspire me to be a better person. To seek, live, and offer the divine in my own living. To advocate for others, be an agent of change, serve my fellow humans in whatever way I can, and strive toward compassion and love for everyone I meet.
Not that I come even close on most days... but I believe there is merit in the effort, beauty in the pursuit, and purpose in the goal.
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