Blessed Charles de Foucauld wanted to be a “universal brother”. When he was in Beni Abbès, Charles wrote,

I want all of those who live here, whether Christian, Muslims, Jews, or pagans, to become accustomed to seeing me as their brother – the universal brother… They begin to call the house ‘the fraternity,’ (the khaoua in Arabic), and this is sweet to my ears…

He explained,

I chose that name because it says that I am their brother and the brother of every human being without exception or distinction.

Antoine Chatelard LBJ, biographer of Blessed Charles, notes that

Nearly all of [Charles’] numerous quotes concerning universal brotherhood date from 1901 and the beginning of 1902. After several months this vocabulary then disappeared from his retreat journals of 1902 and the following years.

He notes that part of the reason is simply practical. Faced with a constant flow of people, it becomes hard not to make exceptions to one’s brotherhood and openness to all without distinction. One has only so many hours and so many interests. And, as hard as it is to be everyone’s brother in a human way, it becomes even harder when you side with the slave against the master: harder – or impossible?

Of course, this all depends on what one means by a “brother”. To Charles in his practical, concrete situation, the aspect of “being a brother” meant relationships of equality, excluding any attitude of master, boss, father, benefactor.

Is there, though, another meaning to being someone’s brother?

In the perspective of the economy of salvation, there exist several relationships of brotherhood:

• all are descended from Adam;
• from Abraham come descendants, the Hebrew people;
• Jesus is the “older, universal brother” (as Brother Charles said) who, in the Gospel, mingled with all without exception, and is the only one perfectly fit to the title;
• by becoming Christians, being baptized with the baptism Jesus was baptized with, and “putting on Christ” (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27), we, at one and the same time, participate in Jesus’ universal brotherhood and, if we are Gentiles, are welcomed into the descendence of Abraham as Jesus lived it

Our brotherhood has an historical aspect. In its exact sense, it is a result of the economy of salvation, and can take one of several meanings. While, in its essence, being a brother might mean not behaving with undue authority and seeking a relationship based on equality, there is something very good beyond this: the real, actual economy of salvation that God chose, the human history that God chose, the actual way God chose to make of humanity a family.

What then, does it mean to be “everyone’s brother”? To recognize that we are all naturally one family with one history and to see, more than this, that everyone either is or potentially could be a member of Jesus himself and thus part of the spiritual family of Abraham and the Hebrew people. That’s history for you!