Be careful, sin lies waiting at your door (cf. Gen 4,7)

Recent events in the world, especially the war in Ukraine, make us rethink the fight between good and evil, the roots of sin and what God says to people in the face of danger. To understand this, one should go back to the origins of man, the first sins and bad choices.

Where does evil come from into man? Where does anger, madness come from? Why can't we stop ourselves sometimes? Why do we do things that we regret? Which cause suffering in other people and also suffering in us? Where did the evil in man come from?

The Scriptures, the Word of God, shed great light on this. Evil came with sin, with man's turning away from God. And where did the violence come from? And where did the anger come from? Where did the crime come from? To understand this better, we need to open the beginning of Genesis and look at the passage that speaks of Cain and Abel. An extraordinary, powerful catechesis of God on the roots of violence, the roots of aggression in man.

Cain and Abel, two children who were born after the fall, after the sin of Adam and Eve. Eve first gave birth to Cain.

Cain from the Hebrew word Kana" (קנה‎ qnh), or Kanar means "to get", one, who buys, earns, gains. He is a man who symbolizes a world in which there is no divine justice, in which God's order has been disturbed, human sin has entered this world. Therefore, what people used to receive directly from God, everything was a gift. At this moment man will have to obtain by hardship, by working. Cain is a symbol of a man who has forgotten the goodness of God. Accordingly, he stops looking up, he takes the initiative. He takes everything into his own hands. He wants to owe everything to himself. He seeks happiness in goods that he can earn and that he can multiply. He is a symbol of a man who loves money, he will never be satisfied with it. He will always be short; he always wants more. He will always suffer.

Abel, on the other hand, his younger brother from the Hebrew word Hebel, derived from Hevel (breath or vapour) means fog. He is a different type of man who will be an eternal wanderer. He will not be attached to any place on earth, to any object. It will be a symbol of someone who is on the road because he carries within himself the longing of another world, another home, as if out of intuition. Somewhere men bear the desire that God give us. We believe in another world.

The Book of Genesis says that there is a certain verification that will allow us to look into the contents of the heart of both Cain and Abel. The moment of sacrifice comes, and then God accepts Abel's sacrifice with joy. Cain's sacrifice, on the other hand, is rejected.

What was the reason for this? Israel's teachers say the reason was that Abel offered everything from a sincere heart. He gave the best to God. Cain, on the other hand, as the tradition of Israel says, offered flax grains at that time. But these were weak grains of low quality. Cain's greed was associated with a certain tactic to offer God something of poor quality, to negotiate a tax cut with God as the ruler of the world.

Another tradition also says that Cain first wanted to satisfy himself, to eat, and then from what he was leftover, he offered to God. No wonder God did not like such a forced sacrifice, such a thing displeases God. Cain feels hurt by God's rejection of his sacrifice. He begins to have, as the Scriptures say, a gray face, gloomy face. Why do you have a gloomy face? How does God seek Cain? He wants to make contact with his conscience. If you did well, your face would be cheerful. You will be joyful, pleased. The Scriptures call this as a certain instinct of evil, something that has been in us since the fall of the first man. Remember: “If you act rightly, you will be accepted; but if not, sin lies in wait at the door: its urge is for you, yet you can rule over it.” (Gen 4,7)

Until Tomorrow

fr. george