Word to the Wise
Monday, February 13, 2017 - Monday in the 6th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 4:1-15, 25 and Mark 8:11-13]Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out in the field." When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" [Genesis]
Once more the Book of Genesis hits us with a fundamental question: Am I my brother's (sister's) keeper?" Although the story features the two brothers Cain and Abel, it touches on something that transcends siblings and goes to the human heart. Envy is a powerful and corrosive thing. The fact that the Book of Genesis tells a story about it indicates that reflection on the origin and cause of such a powerful reality is ancient, indeed. One might simply take the story as speaking to the tension between agricultural and nomadic ways of life, which will become a part of Israel's journey, but envy goes deeper than that.
Put simply, envy is to desire ("covet") what belongs to someone else. The desire can become so powerful that the one who envys will do whatever he or she thinks is necessary to acquire whatever it is from the one who has it, even murder. Two of the Ten Commandments address it: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife." "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods, etc." In the case of Cain and Abel, it was God's approval. Parents know this from their children's efforts to attract approval when one or the other is perceived as being favored over the other. Sibling rivalry, however, is just one form of this. Politics and the workplace present multiple examples. Modern philosophers such as Rene Girard have written extensively about the way this works in whole societies!
Our challenge is to recognize this emotion for what it is and the danger it represents. If we cannot rejoice in the good fortune of another and wish "it had been me instead of him/her," we need to stop and get our moral bearings. The Lord will ask us, "Where is your brother/sister?" Although Cain lied, the rest of his response is still important. "Am I my brother's keeper?" What is our own response to that? AMEN
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