Maureena’s Torah Reflections
Parashat Chayei Sara. Genesis 23:1-25:18
Isaac, the Healer of His Family’s Wounds
After Sarah’s death, Abraham married Keturah, whom Rashi (Gen. 25:1) identifies as Hagar, and she bore him children (Gen. 25:1–2). Only then did Abraham die, “old and satisfied with days.”
His sons, Isaac and Ishmael—long estranged—came together to bury him (Gen. 25:9). This quiet act of unity stands in poignant contrast to the earlier anguish when Sarah sent Hagar and Ishmael into the wilderness (Gen. 21:9–14), a wound that once seemed beyond repair.
According to the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 61:4 ), after Sarah’s death, Isaac sought out Ishmael and his mother Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian servant, and brought them back to Abraham. In this gesture of reconciliation, Isaac mended the tears left in his family’s story. The two sons—Isaac, ancestor of Israel, and Ishmael, ancestor of the Arab peoples—were reunited in peace.
Isaac’s action reveals the deeper purpose of God’s covenant: not to exclude, but to embrace; not to divide, but to heal.
Reflection:
Have you, like Isaac, ever been called to heal the wounds of your family, community, or nation?
Prepared by Prof. Sr Maureena Fritz
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“Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies.”
Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: Nostra Aetate, No. 4