Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31337/oz.79.3.3
The Fraternal Relationship in the Light of God’s Plan of Salvation
Silvana Fužinato
; Catholic Faculty of Theology in Đakovo, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
The blessing and challenge of fraternal relationships are described in a paradigmatic way already in the first pages of the Holy Scriptures. Among the most significant is the fraternal relationship between Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1–16), Ishmael and Isaac (Genesis 21), Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25; 27; 32—33), and Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 37—50). In these, sometimes very complex and difficult fraternal relationships, one might ask how one is to find the path towards reconciliation, coexistence and thus to build an authentic relationship in order to avoid a complete breakdown of the relationship and the destruction of the “other” and the “different one”, as was the case in the Cain and Abel relationship (Genesis 4:1–16). How is one to recognize God’s presence and His pedagogy in fraternal relationships, which are permeated by both light and shadows? This paper attempts to answer these questions by analyzing the relationship between Esau and Jacob in a communicative perspective which focuses on the pragmatic power and role of the text. Thus, the brotherly relationship is a place of encounter with one’s personal limits and weaknesses. Knowledge of personal limitations can bring either a blessing or a curse, that is, life or death to a person. However, the fraternal relationship is at the same time a privileged place where God reveals His face and fulfills his salvific plan of love. In the accounts of Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, the brotherly relationship is shown both as a place of encounter with the “other” and the “different one” and as a place of conflict. Paradoxically, the dramatic struggle between the brothers, caused by jealousy, the desire to possess and gain power over the other, also becomes a place of encounter with the truth about oneself. The meeting between Esau and Jacob, which takes place after twenty years of flight and fear of fraternal revenge, describes the fraternal relationship as the primary place for dialogue and reconciliation. Only in the truth about oneself, in accepting one’s diversity and the diversity of others, can one fully realize oneself as a person created in the image of God. In building authentic fraternal relationships, it is therefore necessary to look at oneself and the other with the gaze of God, a gaze that unites and recognizes a brother in the other, and enables him to grow and develop in his uniqueness and diversity, which will make the fraternal relationship a place of revelation of the God of love and of life and also a place of mutual growth and maturation in togetherness and love, truth and authenticity, belonging and responsibility.
Keywords
fraternal relationship; Esau and Jacob; conflict; limitations; truth; encounter; dialogue; reconciliation
Hrčak ID:
318396
URI
Publication date:
2.7.2024.
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