National Post Editorial: The blessing of Christian fraternity and the importance of gathering

National Post Editorial — National Post, 23 December 2023

Jesus offers something more than the bond of blood; a universal fraternity is now possible, for God is the Father of all.

Christians are gathering for their holiest of days, but Christmas joy is a little harder to find in the family of our shared Abrahamic family this year.

The Hamas attacks made Oct. 7 the most lethal day for Jews since the Holocaust. It was more than that. Absent the attacks of Sept. 11, the Oct. 7 massacre was the most lethal day of terrorism in history.

Immediately after 9/11, the popular TV drama The West Wing produced an episode exploring the issue of jihadist terrorism, entitled Isaac and Ishmael. The script made a claim about the origins of it all, in lines given to Stockard Channing, playing First Lady Abigail Bartlett. Asked by a group of high school students how it all began, she related to them the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar in Genesis.

“And so it began,” she says. “The Jews, the sons of Isaac, and the Arabs the sons of Ishmael.”

Not incorrect, but incomplete. The rivalry between brothers goes back even earlier in Genesis, to Cain, who kills his brother Abel. The proximate cause? A dispute over whose worship was pleasing to God.

What lesson does the scripture mean to teach when fratricide afflicts the first set of brothers? What does it mean when generations of brothers are at enmity, sons of the same father? Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, the sons of Israel.

Genesis tells us that conflict first arises in the heart of the family, with friction, even fratricide, rather than fraternity characterizing relations with those who are closest.

So it was in the beginning, as it is now and, perhaps, ever shall be, world without end. Thus 2023 brought a continuation of the war between brother Slavs, Russians and Ukrainians, in which religion too is a factor.

“The root of human conflict is sibling rivalry,” taught the late Lord Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Great Britain, commenting upon Genesis.

“Judaism was the world’s first monotheism but not the last,” Sacks wrote. “Two others emerged claiming descent, literal or metaphorical, from Abraham, Christianity and Islam. It would be fair to call the relationship between the three Abrahamic monotheisms, one of sibling rivalry.”

That rivalry, not for first time, erupted with great cruelty in October. Hamas, like Cain, does not esteem the Jewish worship of God and gives that lethal expression.

Yet that is an early word, not the last word. Rabbi Sacks wrote a book arguing that if violence can have religious roots, then religious resources are needed as a remedy. Genesis teaches that too. Cain kills Abel, but Ishmael and Isaac reunite to bury their father Abraham. Esau and Jacob achieve a cold peace; Joseph and his brothers achieve genuine reconciliation. Fraternity is restored.

The Abraham Accords are an attempt to a move away from Cain and toward Joseph — stories that appear in both the Torah and the Qur’an. Hamas takes its stand with Cain and for fratricide. Others will have to stand for fraternity. Thus it was the beginning and is now, the great unfolding of history between alternatives, fratricide and fraternity.

The Christian gospels offer a different story. Jesus does not have siblings who are rivals. He is God’s only son. He offers something more than the bond of blood; a universal fraternity is now possible, for God is the Father of all.

The promise Christians celebrate at Christmas — Glory to God in the highest and peace upon earth! — is not a cold peace, limited to the cessation of arms. It is the peace that comes from a universal brotherhood rooted in the common fatherhood, not of Abraham, but of God.

How far does the promise of brotherhood extend?

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