Our Brother's Keeper

In Les Misérables I love the scene when Jean Valjean, recently released from prison, knocked on the Bishop’s door expecting one more person to reject him as an outcast of society.  He was shocked when the Bishop let him in and treated him kindly, and he even started explaining who he was to make sure the Bishop knew he was an ex-convict.  The Bishop responded, “This is not my house; it is the house of Jesus Christ. This door does not demand of him who enters whether he has a name, but whether he has a grief. You suffer, you are hungry and thirsty; you are welcome. And do not thank me; do not say that I receive you in my house. No one is at home here, except the man who needs a refuge. I say to you, who are passing by, that you are much more at home here than I am myself. Everything here is yours. What need have I to know your name? Besides, before you told me you had one which I knew.”  Valjean responded, “Really? You knew what I was called?” The Bishop replied, “Yes, you are called my brother.”  What a powerful message of brotherly love that is at the heart of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.    

               This story is in sharp contrast to that of Cain and Abel.  After Cain had killed Abel in order to get gain, the Lord asked him: “Where is Abel, thy brother?” His response was the infamous line: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Moses 5:34)  The Bishop in Les Misérables would respond with an emphatic yes, and not just our literal brothers but all of our brothers and sisters in the family of God.  The Book of Mormon confirms this great responsibility for those who take upon them the name of Christ through baptism, to “mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort” (Mosiah 18:9).  This was of course the great hallmark of the Savior’s ministry as He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils, and in every way bettered the life of those around him.  Elder Holland suggested that the Lord’s call to “pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest” is a call not just for more missionary but also for more of us to help and serve and heal others (Matt. 9:38).  He said, “I wish to suggest tonight that in context it surely is a call to heal one another as well. Jesus certainly did his missionary work, and he did that first. But as he went about preaching and teaching, he bound up all manner of wounds in the process….  Often we can, usually unwittingly, be quite insensitive to the circumstances and difficulties of those around us. We all have problems, and ultimately each individual has to take responsibility for his or her own happiness. None of us is so free of difficulty ourselves or so endowed with time and money that we can do nothing but tend ‘the wounded and the weary.’ Nevertheless, in looking to the Savior’s life for an example, I suspect we can probably find a way to do a little more of that than we do.”  In other words, we need to try to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper more often.  

            As we try to emulate the Savior we should seek to make this prophetic description of His life one that also reflects our own: “The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives… to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:1-3).  If it can be said of us at the end of our life that we indeed did these things, then we will have truly been our brother’s keeper like the Bishop of Digne.