Charles
de Foucauld - part 4
“I Won Through…”
“The rebels were squashed. But they had
made Charles curious and awakened in this loner an irresistible desire to get
to know other people, to know the unknown.
Charles learned Arabic and read the Qur’an.
He asked the army for an opportunity to study the subject nation. The army
refused. Thus surrendered again his commission and left the army.
He decided on a long trip of exploration
through Morocco. The French Geographical Society sent him to map the desert.
The risk was considerable, suicidal. Two Europeans traveled through Morocco at the
same time and disappeared. His family
tried to dissuade him. In vain! From
Morocco, Charles wrote later to his sister: ‘if one leaves saying that one is
going to do something, one must not return without having done it’.
Charles described his journey: ‘I always
had a notebook five centimeters square hidden in my left hand. Used a stub of pencil, which never left out
on my other hand, to write down what I saw on either side… In that way I was
almost always writing as I went along… I was careful enough to walk in front of
ir behind my companions, so that with the aid of my capacious garments they
would not notice the slight movements of my hands’.
Charles discovered the sacred law of
hospitality among Muslims as well as Jews.
It was something entirely new to him.
He loved it. Up to then Muslims
had been the ‘enemy’. Now he met them as
friends.
Now and then some hosts sensed who he
really was. They made smiling allusions
and offered him gifts most civilly. One
of them even risked his life for Charles. ‘From then on my relationship with
him was that of a friend. I exchanged trust for trust… I told him clearly who I
was… his friendship was all the more
secure’.
The danger was very great on three
occasions. And each time, a Muslim
risked everything to save Charles. The
third time, he almost lost his life.
Charles told a friend: ‘it was tough but interesting and I won
through’.
Charles de Foucauld had emerged from his
shell – a friend of Muslims and Jews.”
(Jun Mercado, OMI 1/26/18)
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