The Happy Land

Making a pilgrimage to our hearts

06/25/2021

Genesis 17:1, 9-10 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: “I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.” God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.” God further said to Abraham: “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him.” Then Abraham said to God, “Let but Ishmael live on by your favor!” God replied: “Nevertheless, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I am heeding you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly.

Sometimes people suggest that I should lead a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. If I did, would you “jump on that train” as Dc. Daniel likes to say? But I hesitate to head there because the Holy Land is not a very happy land. Have you ever wondered why the Palestinians and the Israelis are constantly in conflict? Some experts believe the controversy goes back to 1947 and the first Arab-Israeli War. Others argue it goes back to 621, when Mohammed made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and even ascended to heaven briefly. The golden dome you see in pictures of Jerusalem is the mosque that commemorates that pilgrimage. Even Mohammed makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land but not Fr. John.

But I am convinced that the real roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict are buried deep in the book of Genesis, and we get a glimpse of it in our first reading from Genesis 17. You already know the story of Abraham according to Genesis. That same story, however, according to the Quran (the holy book of Islam) is different in three radical respects. First, Hagar is not merely a slave of Abraham, she is also his wife. Genesis never says Abraham married Hagar but the Quran does. That is a big difference.

Second, Ishmael is the favored first-born son and therefore receives his father’s special pride and sure protection. According to the Quran, Abraham and Ishmael together built the mosque, the huge black cube called the Kaaba, in the middle of Mecca. All devout Muslims turn toward Mecca when they pray, toward that Cube. And third, Abraham did not almost sacrifice Isaac as an act of faith in God, but according to the Quran, Abraham almost sacrificed Ishmael. Therefore, the son who inherited the “faith of father Abraham” was not Isaac but rather Ishmael, the father of the Arabs and Palestinians.

The deepest roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict, therefore, are not political or economic or social or military. Rather, they are only discovered in the family feud that goes all the way back to 1800 B.C. and the family of Abraham. The reason the Holy Land is not a very happy land is because of the old saying, “no one fights like family.” The Arab-Israeli conflict is at bottom about two half-brothers, both claiming to be the favored son of the Father of Faith.

May I suggest two other family feuds to bring this message a little closer to home? Those who live in glass houses should not throw rocks. Have you ever wondered where all the denominations and divisions in Christianity come from? Are Christians not all half-brothers and sisters who fight but also claim a common ancestor, namely, Jesus Christ? In 1054 the Catholics and Orthodox Churches split from each other.

In the 1500’s, the Protestant Reformation split the Church into hundreds, and now thousands, of feuding factions of faith. In Spanish, we call Protestants “hermanos separados” (separated brothers and sisters) to show that spiritually-speaking, we are really hostile half-brothers no less than Ishmael and Isaac. In other words, Christians can boast of no moral high ground as we watch the Arabs and Israelis in their constant conflict. We are rowing down the river of history in very much the same boat.

Here is the second practical application. Do we really need to peer into our neighbor’s windows to see fighting brothers and sisters? We find lots of in-fighting in our own families. Besides all the good and noble reasons my family immigrated to the United States we also find hidden the less heroic motivation to get away from toxic family and friends. Most immigrant families will find the same sad saga in their own history.

Abraham took both Hagar and Ishmael to the desert, to the future site of Mecca, to flee the jealousy of Sarah, who felt her son, Isaac, should get preferential treatment. In other words, the reason Abraham moved his wife and son to Saudi Arabia is very similar to why my family moved to the United States almost four thousand years later: a family feud. My family’s holy land of India was not a very happy land.

So, I still hesitate to lead a pilgrimage to the Holy Land because to this day it remains not a very happy land. Perhaps a more pertinent pilgrimage we should all take is to the holy land of our own hearts. When we get there, we should pray for peace: among Arabs and Israelis, among denominations of devout Christians, and among our own feuding family members at home. Then, at least the holy land of our hearts might also be a happy land.

Praised be Jesus Christ!