THE MARK OF CAIN

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 6^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “The Mark of Cain.”

These powerful stories in the Book of Genesis give us plenty of life issues to think about.

In today’s story from Genesis 4:1-15, 25, we hear about Cain - a tiller of the soil - a farmer - who killed his brother Abel - a shepherd.

Motive: thinking God liked Abel better than God liked him. Cain thought God thought Abel brought the better gift as an offering. Motive: jealousy, envy, and anger - and probably stuff that goes way back into their history.

Here it is Chapter 4 and the authors of Genesis have already brought up and put on the stage the question of Good and Evil - and that God creates good, so who brings about evil? Answer: us.

We eat forbidden fruit. We hide from God. We blame the other. We want to be equal to God. And here we have brother killing brother.

Cain then wanders the earth: restless and filled with remorse. And on his being is the mark of his mistake: the mark of Cain.

YETZER HARA

Jewish rabbis like to point out that we all have the mark of our sins on the blackboard of our soul.  We have the chalk dust - still there - even though we try to erase it. We have scars. We have memories. We know our big mistakes.

Jewish rabbis also  like to point out - using this story of Cain killing his brother Abel - that there is lurking at our doorstep - at the flap of the tent of our mind - something called, ‘The Yetzer Hara”. That’s Hebrew for the Inclination to Sin.

Yetzer - inclination. Hara - sin or evil.

They also like to point out that there is also the opposite - right there at the edge of out being: the Yetzer Ha tov: the inclination to good.

They teach when a boy hits 13 and a girl 12 - it’s bar or bas mitzvah time - to point out that we have choices. Choose good; avoid evil.

We Catholics have confirmation. Other religions and tribes - more or less have these puberty rites. The Amish have the Rumspringa - literally “Run Springing  - running around - when young people are put out there for roughly a year - not to get into evil drug parties - that some documentaries like to televise. They want to give their young ones the freedom to choose Amish.

The rabbis like to teach that every person has to move from the physical to the spiritual. We have desires to eat and drink, but there is the inclination to be a glutton and overdrink. They like to teach that we have sexual powers, but we need to fight the yetzer hara to over indulge. So too speech…. So too to have fun, but we can overdo it - and get marked down for life.

FOR LIFE

Cain carried the sin - the mark - of his evil deed for life.

As priest I know that people carry the sins of their youth, young adulthood, old adulthood for life.

So the message is obviously to choose good and have that marked on our being for life.

IN TOUCH WITH

I would think it is important that we know about evil and good - how they lurk at the edge of our life.

I would think it’s important to help kids choose good - and to encourage.

I would think it’s important for us to give good example.

I would think it’s important to help kids realize there is evil. 

It's Black History Month and I would think one good movie to watch is, "42" - the story of Jackie Robinson breaking into the major leagues as the first African-American baseball player. Relevant to this sermon is a scene in Cincinnatti - where Robinson is taunted and made fun and called the "N" word.  The camera puts a close up and the focus of a little white kid watching Jackie Robinson - his new found hero - till he hears his father and his father's friends calling Jackie the "N" word and then after a long pause - the kid does as well.

The evil inclination. The Yetzer Hara is always around.

I would think kids learn that for beach week at the end of high school and during spring break in college, there are opportunities to work on houses - like habitat for humanity.

I would think it’s smart to know kids need supervision - when the superego - chaperone’s are talking  - kids are plotting. I always remember boat rides up the Hudson as a kid - altar boys - there would always be Catholic high school seniors throwing chairs overboard - and making mischief.

CONCLUSION

Regrets and remembering dumb and dirty tricks, hurting and killing one another, sins and selfishness and a lot more are the marks of Cain.

Forgiveness from our brother Jesus  - who has become our keeper - is a way to recover and we can be redeemed and walk with the mark of forgiveness on our hands and soul.

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Painting on top: Cain and Abel,  by Keith Vaughan Tate, 1946.