Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: Genesis 4:1-15, 25
The First Children of Adam and Eve
--------------------------------------------
[1] Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” [2] And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground.
Cain and Abel
-----------------
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, [4] and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, [5] but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. [6] The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? [7] If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
[8] Cain said to Abel his brother, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. [9] Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” [10] And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. [11] And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. [12] When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” [13] Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. [14] Behold, thou hast driven me this day away from the ground; and from thy face I shall be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay me.” [15] Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him.
The birth of Seth
------------------------
[25] And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, for Cain slew him.”
**********************************************************
Commentary:
4:1. To refer to sexual intercourse between man and woman, the Bible uses the term “to know”, thereby signalling the human depth of that relationship: although it takes place via the body, it does so in a context of mind and will.
The name of Cain has an explanation in the biblical text: it echoes Eve’s exclamation, “I have gotten (in Hebrew, “qaniti”). This shows God’s part in the generation of her child. The Bible will keep on teaching that children are a gift from God, and that it is God who gives or witholds fertility. Consequently the Church reminds married couples of their duty “to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters’” (Vatican II, “Gaudium et spes”, 50).
4:3-8. We can see here how from the start God picks out particular people (without any merit on their part), sometimes giving preference to the youngest or the weakest: Isaac is preferred to Esau, for example; David to his brothers. The origin of Cain’s sin lies in the fact that he does not accept God’s preference for his younger brother, and he gives way to anger, envy (cf. Wis 10:3) and gloominess. Despite that, God loves Cain too and he invites him to master temptation (v. 7) by acting rightly; but Cain killed his brother Abel.
Cain is the prototype of the perverse and murderous man; Abel, of the just man who blamelessly suffers violent death. For this reason Abel is seen as a figure of Jesus Christ, whose blood spilt on the cross speaks even more eloquently than the blood of Abel: “But you have come [. . .] to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the spiritual blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel” (Heb 12:24). Cain, on the other hand, symbolizes every man who hates his neighbour, for hatred implies desiring that the other person should not exist. St John interprets the story of Cain in this sense when he writes: “This is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. [. . .] Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and we know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him’’ (Jn 3:11-12, 15).
Assuming that Cain was ill-intentioned in his offerings, St Bede the Venerable comments that “men often are placated by gifts from those who have offended them; but God, who ‘discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Heb 4:12), lets himself be placated by no gift as much as by the pious devotion of the offerer. Once he has seen the purity of our heart, he will then also accept our prayers and our works” (“Hexaemeron 2: in Gen, 4:4-5).
4:9-16. The question God puts to Cain is one that is constantly being asked of all human beings as regards their fellows. And the death by violence of any innocent person cries for justice, a cry to which God is never indifferent. He burdens Cain’s conscience with the weight of his crime, even though he protects his life by putting a mark on him to prevent anyone taking revenge. In the context of this account, the mark is meant as a protection, not a sign of infamy. The fact that Cain, on account of what he has done, is sent out of God’s presence and has to wander on the earth symbolizes the break with God that sin causes.
“Human life is sacred,” the Church teaches, “because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being’’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2258).
4:25-26. This is the part of mankind which retained its knowledge of the true God, who in due course will reveal himself to Abraham (cf. chap. 12) and Moses (cf. Ex 3:14). Seth’s name is given an etymological explanation, but now one connected not with cities and skills (cf. the note on 4:17-24) but with God: Seth gets his name because God gave him to Eve to take the place of Abel. This will be the line of descendants of Adam and Eve from which will come the chosen people, through the calling of Abraham. The fact that there is no mention of Seth’s descendants devoting themselves to trades may he designed to show that their specific contribution to mankind was their keeping the knowledge of the true God -- a greater contribution than that made by others.
“In a figurative manner,” St Bede explains, “Enoch, the son of Seth, stands for the Christian people who, through faith and the sacrament of the passion and resurrection of the Lord, is born every day, the world over, of water and the Holy Spirit. This people [. . .] in all that it does is always invoking the name of the Lord, saying, Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed by thy name” (Hexaemeron 2: in Gen, 4:25-26).
Second Miracle of the Loaves
----------------------------
[1] In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, He (Jesus) called His disciples to Him, and said to them, [2] "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; [3] and if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come a long way." [4] And His disciples answered Him, "How can one feed these men with bread here in the desert?" [5] And He asked them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven." [6] And He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground; and He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. [7] And they had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He commanded that these also should be set before them. [8] And they ate, and were satisfied; and took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. [9] And there were about four thousand people. [10] And He sent them away; and immediately He got into the boat with His disciples, and went to the district of Dalmanutha. [11] The Pharisees came and began to argue with Him (Jesus), seeking from Him a sign from Heaven, to test Him.
***********************************************************************
Commentary:
1-9. Jesus repeats the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish: the first time (Mark 6:33-44) He acted because He saw a huge crowd like "sheep without a shepherd"; now He takes pity on them because they have been with Him for three days and have nothing to eat.
This miracle shows how Christ rewards people who persevere in following Him: the crowd had been hanging on His words, forgetful of everything else. We should be like them, attentive and ready to do what He commands, without any vain concern about the future, for that would amount to distrusting Divine Providence.
10. "Dalmanutha": this must have been somewhere near the Lake of Gennesaret, but it is difficult to localize it more exactly. This is the only time it is mentioned in Sacred Scripture. In the parallel passage in St. Matthew (15:39) Magadan (sometime Magdala) is mentioned.
11-12. Jesus expresses the deep sadness He feels at the hardheartedness of the Pharisees: they remain blind and unbelieving despite the light shining around them and the wonderful things Christ is doing. If someone rejects the miracles God has offered him, it is useless for him to demand new signs, because he asks for them not because he is sincerely seeking the truth but out of ill will: he is trying to tempt God (cf. Luke 16:27-31). Requiring new miracles before one will believe, not accepting those already performed in the history of salvation, amounts to asking God to account for Himself before a human tribunal (cf. Romans 2:1-11). Unfortunately, many people do act like this. But God can only be found if we have an open and humble attitude to Him. "I have no need of miracles: there are more than enough for me in the Gospel. But I do need to see you fulfilling your duty and responding to grace" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 362).