Word to the Wise
Monday, February 13, 2023 - Monday in the 6th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 4:1-15, 25 and Mark 8:11-13]Then the Lord asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" [Genesis]
The story of Cain and Abel is probably one of the most familiar in the Bible! And the lines quoted above are just as familiar. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
The consequences of the forbidden fruit become immediately evident in a terrible way - fratricide! The consequences for Abel are death and for Cain, a lasting punishment - the "mark of Cain!" Murder is terrible in all its forms, but the form that involves one's own kin (including abortion) seems to carry a particularly terrible depth. Yet we humans are quite capable of it!
Cain's response to the Lord's inquiry, however, goes beyond his lethal conduct and reaches all of us. "Am I my brother's keeper?" This is more than the English meaning of a kind of jailer! What is our responsibility for our neighbor? ( Do we even think of our own kin as "neighbor?") What we learn, and probably know from our own experience, is that as humans we are capable of deep murderous hatred. In Cain's case, it was envy of God's favor to Abel, and he ignored God's reassurance and warning: "Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master." Self-mastery is a lifelong process, but the failure to do so is at the root of all sin. The story of Cain and Abel is a demonstration of the terrible power that God has put into our hands - life and death. We can destroy life or give it! We can choose to do either. No matter which one we choose, we remain "our brother's keeper!" AMEN