Am I my brother’s keeper?

Cain’s retort to God when asked about Abel is well known.

Solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion help us regain the sense of brotherhood- Fr Joe Borg

His question flies in the face of everything Christian; nay, in the face of everything that is genuinely human. Solidarity (that is, being my brother’s keeper) is, after all, a basic constituent of our human nature.

We cannot live our humanity to the full without others. In more senses than one we are the result of our relationships with others.

One can give this reality a societal dimension especially since we live in a culture dominated by means of communication that have net-worked us together as never before. Marshall McLuhan ably documented how print culture symbolically called the Gutenberg Galaxy brought to the fore individualism.

Today, as Manuel Castells scholarly puts it, the internet galaxy has taken over from the Gutenberg galaxy. We thus live in a network society where it should be easier for solidarity to flourish.

But what has all this to do with Lent, which this year begins on February 22?

Pope Benedict based this year’s Lenten message on a scriptural verse which can be considered to be the antithesis of Cain’s cri de coeur. “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

Concern for others is inspired by the attitude of looking at the other not as a competitor or an adversary, but as an alter ego.

There is a very fine line between the attitude whereby one “jerfa’ salib in-nies”, as we say in Maltese, to the attitude whereby one “jerfa’ s-salib tan-nies”.

The first attitude characterises the person who is driven by morbid curiosity while the other characterises the person who is fuelled by deep concern for others and the desire to help them. This latter attitude makes sense even if seen from a purely human perspective.

If we add a theological perspective, this vision of the other as an alter ego, takes an enhanced form of existence. We are created in the image of a God who is a community. Therefore, the more we imitate God the more we strengthen the communitarian dimension of our existence. The more we are concerned for others in a true spirit of solidarity, the more we become like God.

The Pope mentions four values that are evidenced in the actions of those who are really concerned about others. These are “solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion”, values which help us regain the sense of brotherhood that is sorely missing.

Pope Paul VI had pointed towards this problem in his famous encyclical letter Popu­lorum Progressio: “Human society is sorely ill. The cause is not so much the depletion of natural resources, nor their monopolistic control by a privileged few; it is rather the weakening of brotherly ties between individuals and nations”.

The Pope’s analysis is spot on, as the weakening of brotherly ties implies the weakening of the core element of each human person.

To the question about what hinders the fostering of this spirit of brotherhood, Pope Benedict answers that “often it is the possession of material riches and a sense of sufficiency, but it can also be the tendency to put our own interests and problems above all else”.

The effort to live to the full this attitude of true concern for others is a difficult one indeed. We get tired and we falter on the way.

Lent, as the Pope aptly explains, is the time to examine options in preparation to Easter, the feast par excellance of renewal and rebirth.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt