PATROLOGOS project

After the paternal remarks, which 
the most merciful God made to Cain, 
what did he have to do in response? To be cautious. 

He should immediately first of all 
acknowledge his fault and start a battle 
against the emotions and dispositions of his heart. 

He ought to disapprove and to fight against 
the envy and the fury, that he was feeling 
against his brother Abel to somehow violate himself, 
to force himself a little and to resort to God 
through the prayer asking for the help and the remission 
from his heart's pressing evils. 

Certainly it would not immediately cease the evil, 
the fire however in this way would get immediately restrained 
and would not continue to occupy new ground too. 

It would not immediately pacify and completely so the heart of Cain, 
because again from time to time 
envy would come and the resentment to tempt him. 

Certainly, nevertheless the hatred and the envy would not conquer him, 
but on the contrary Cain very soon 
would manage to gain control upon himself 
and to dominate upon his passions. 

This is how sin is. 
It sticks to our soul 
and to our heart easily, 
and very hardly it gets out of there. 
Fight however, my Christian. 
Fight without getting discouraged. 

Fight with certainty, that if you just cross your hands 
and you don't move and you don't fight, 
the sin quite soon will entirely take you over and will capture you 
as if you were some animal without freedom and without strength. 
While, if you fight with watchful attention, 
soon, very soon you shall achieve the victory. 

The abjection now of Cain, who got reckless 
and didn't resist at all to evil, which 
had set up its nest within his soul, 
do you know what it was? That he didn't hesitate that wretched man 
to conceive the decision and the plan, 
in order to kill his brother. 

And without waiting, in order to be given to him the opportunity 
he instead prepares it himself alone. 
He invites his brother to come out together to the fields. 
«And Cain said to Abel his brother; let's go out to the field». 

The manner, with which he must have made 
this proposition to his brother, Cain, 
it was, it seems, very hypocritical and very deceitful. 

While one such evil plan 
Cain is determined to execute it, 
he doesn't exhibit, as it seems, no preoccupation, 
none towards Abel displeasure and disfavour. 
He succeeds to not be betrayed towards the innocent victim. 

Because, as you see, Abel does not suspect anything 
and he is convinced without any objection 
to follow his brother 
to the place of his execution to death. 
And this fact makes it seem the action of Cain even more terrible 
and more evil. 

Cain is not just a killer. He is also a murderer. 
He doesn't just kill because of the upheaval of his soul. 
He kills, 
after he premeditated and predetermined his criminal act. 

Also, he kills in a dishonest manner and a deceitful one. 
He takes his brother out to the fields 
in order to supposedly go for a walk 
and while he is unsuspected, he kills him. 

«And it came to pass when they were in the field, 
that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him», 
says the Scripture while narrating in a few 
but descriptive words the great crime. 

«Cain rose up against Abel his brother». 
Cain rose up and he fell upon Abel, 
who was not a stranger and an enemy of his, 
but he was his own brother of his. 

«Against Abel his brother». 
The man against whom Cain fell 
was Abel, the benevolent and righteous Abel. 
But at the same time he was also the brother of Cain. 
He therefore was the benevolent and righteous brother, 
who didn't have in anything bothered Cain. 

He was not just a brother. He also was a good brother. 
A brother, who respected 
and honored his older brother Cain. 
A brother, who cared 
and longed for Cain. 

A brother, of whose «the desire» and the compliance 
was always towards Cain, as God had said, 
and of whom Cain was the master and the lord. 

And still Cain kills him. 
What a black action and obscure 
and terrible and violent! 
An unnatural action, because Cain 
goes now against the nature itself, 
which naturally taught us and without any effort to love our brothers. 

An inhuman act, because Cain kills a man, 
who didn't harm him at all; 
a man, who loved him, who respected him, 
who was harmless, a lamb, indeed. 

And this criminal act of Cain, 
which has so many aggravating factors and no alleviatives, 
is presented even more unjustifiable, 
when we consider, that God intended to prevent it 
and to restrain Cain from the terrible downfall, 
where he was drawn by his perverted nature. 

But he shuts his ears 
and doesn't want to listen to 
the paternal voice of God. 
And thus he becomes 
disobedient, at first, and disrespectful towards God 
and then also murderer of his own brother. 

Disobedient and disrespectful towards God, 
because he despises the disciplinary intervention 
and the guidance by God. 
He was impious and defector against God, 
because he murdered Abel for the only reason because God 
showed favor and affection towards him. 

And thus that crime of Cain 
was not only addressed against Abel, 
but also against God, 
Who had accepted the sacrifice of Abel. 

Such is the crime of Cain, my reader, 
that also hearts that are tough and rough are filled up with horror, 
as soon as they look closely at it. 

Even among those, who are locked in the prisons 
for inhuman crimes and fierce ones, 
when you narrate to them and exemplify to them 
how it really happened this murder, 
many will be found, who will be touched, 
they will sympacize poor Abel 
and they will despise the deplorable and criminal Cain. 

He committed a murder, 
which he had no justification under no circumstances to commit it; 
the very first murder that took place on earth, 
without existing any previous precedent. 

And he conceives him first this terrible crime, 
he invents it and he devises it, so to speak, 
and thus he becomes the father of all murderers, all that the earth will afterwards see, 
of whom he became by his example to their tutor and guide. 

Now in case you wished to ask this criminal fratricidal, 
how did he come to this crime 
the so terrible one and horrible, 
most likely he won't even himself know 
how was he seduced and how did he fall to this great precipice. 

The evil entered little by little into his soul. 
One small displeasure in the beginning; a sting of envy at the same time; 
malignancy after a while; aversion afterwards and hate irreconcilable 
and full of rage and fury after a while. 

It didn't come abruptly the decision for the fratricide. 
They previously went on various other phases and landmarks of the evil, 
to which Cain did not stop, because he didn't oppose no resistance, 
but he let himself to slip 
from one phase to the other, 
and from one landmark to the next, 
until he came to the most terrible landmark of evil. 

In the beginning the whole issue remained small. 
But you see 
one evil carries with it also another. 
The bad thought, the more it remains inside the soul, 
the more it spreads in there and little by little it becomes bad desisions. 

Have you ever seen, 
when you throw in the water some small stone, 
what happens? 
In the beginning it is being formed a small circle, 
which it continualy spreads and becomes larger, 
until it reaches to the shore or the coast 
or anywhere the water borders with. 

And this circle does not remain alone. 
Because right away are being formed even more circles, 
within which one circle succeeds the other 
and all together, one after the other, 
they spread over the surface of the water, 
which thus stops being quiet and calm. 

In this phenomenon, my reader, 
you have a descriptive image of the transaction, 
that takes place in our soul, 
when they enter in it the evil and the sin. 
That is, although the sin encounters the serenity and the peace in the soul, 
immediately after it enters, it drives them away at once. 

And it immediately brings forth a multitude of thoughts and feelings, 
that create the agitation, which, the more that you let them, 
the more they spread out and they multiply and they grow 
in order to take over of your whole soul. 

If you want to be saved, resort immediately to Him, 
Who in other times commanded the sea 
and they calmed down its waves. 
He is able to give you the serenity and to anticipate the shipwreck, 
to which you will certainly end up, 
if you get conquered by the sin and its fraudulent inebriety. 

Cain in the beginning gets angry, 
he envies, he hates. 
And thus, therefore, it is clearly proven, 
that the envy and the hate is the father of every murder. 
«The one who hates his brother, says Saint John the Evangelist, is an murderer of men». 

The hate is a murderous disposition; it is the seed of the murder. 
And if, when we hate, God abandons us, 
we certainly get leaded towards the murder. 

Let's take care, therefore, my brothers, 
to eradicate with the grace of God 
every cause of bitterness and envy 
and hate from our heart, 
because otherwise we accommodate in it a wild beast, 
which I don't know, 
how far it can mislead us some day. 

And to another point also it is worth fixing our attention. 
God brought about a great 
and saving occasion to Cain, 
in order to prevent his crime. 
He talked and He discussed with him. 
Cain, however, despised this saving occasion 
and he didn't seek to benefit from it. 

And the result what was it? 
The fact that God abandoned him. 
And the greater it was this holy occasion, which Cain despised, 
likewise the abandonment was more terrible, 
and the fall, in which Cain slipped, was more fearful and pernicious. 

This is a lesson for us. Because also to us 
it brings circumstances the providence of God in order to save us. 
Many circumstances, continuous circumstances, saving circumstances. 

What do you do in these circumstances, my brother? 
Are you working, in order to bear fruit from these circumstances? 
Or do you just let them go without any benefit? 

Alas! 
One will go, the other will go, many will maybe go 
and if you remain sleeping and wallowing in sin, 
the terrible example of Cain warns you, 
what is possible to happen to you. 
It is possible that God abandons you and then, 
it would be better if you wouldn't have been born. 

When Christ, a few days before He was crucified, 
He preannounced to the Jews the great punishment, 
that God had in store for them because of their hardheartedness 
and of the huge crime that they would commit 
to crucify and to kill Him, 
Who was Son of God, 

He also told them, that it would fall upon them 
the blood of every martyr and every prophet 
unfairly killed on his duty 
«from the blood», He said, «of Abel the just 
until the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, 
whom you have killed between the temple and the sanctuary». 

And thus, therefore, the unfairly killed Abel was placed by the very mouth of Christ 
as first and head of all the martyrs and all these men, 
who sacrificed themselves to the altar of duty. 

They were not one and two, 
they were many the chosen ones and the honest men, 
who like Abel were unjustly murdered, 
for the only reason because they were faithful to the will of God, 
faithful to their duty. 

And if we wanted with one image only 
to depict this sequence of the martyrs, 
we could call it a chain, 
which begins from Abel and reaches up to Christ, in order to start over again from Him. 

A chain, 
which passes from all the generations of the people, 
without ever being interrupted, because each generation has its own martyrs 
and therefore each generation forges 
its own links for the precious and bloodstained chain 
and from every gold and ornament and diamond more honest chain. 

And of this chain one of the heads 
and one of the edges in the Old Testament 
is Abel the righteous, and the other edge is the Baptist and the Precursor John, 
who gets adjoined next to the leader of the martyrs, 
to the King and Lord and martyr of martyrs, Jesus Christ. 

It was big, indeed, the wrongdoing, 
that he did that deplorable Cain to his brother. 
Without any cause, and only because 
he was really pious and righteous, 
he kills him at the very best of his age, 
in the very joy of his youth. 

But behold how great it also is the reward, 
with which God crowns him 
and where it places him the unequivocal mouth of the Lord. 

To tell you the truth, 
I would also like to die 
so prematurely and so hard, 
but also so piously and virtuously, as Abel died. 
When you are going to secure one such glorious position to the eternity, 
what do you need the many years of this present life? 

And what did Abel loose, if he was brutally killed out at the fields 
and if he didn't have no friend near him in his last moments 
and if it was buried in the earth his corpse in a hastily manner 
by the bloodstained hands of his brother? 

And what is wrong in death, 
no matter how hard, no matter how solitary, no matter how premature, 
when it's going to follow it the eternal and inexhaustible 
and happy and prosperous life? 

I don't mourn for you, blessed Abel. 
I don't lament for the unfair and premature and so hard end of yours. 

I don't shed tears for the terror that you must have experienced, 
when you saw all of a sudden your brother Cain with a fierce face 
to fall upon you and with stones or even with thick pieces of wood 
to carry out on you painful hits 
and to take away from you the life. 

Neither I care why no one was found down there 
in order to pick up your holy body, 
wash its wounds and bury it reverently, 
and also not let your fair blood scattered there. 

No; I consider you blessed, oh fair Abel; 
I consider you prosperous, I consider you fortunate, and I consider you happy. 

And when people, like you, 
are dying from such death, then in fact the death itself 
no matter how many rough are following it circumstances 
it actually loses the terror and the horror, 
which usually inspires its face, 
and becomes desirable and enticing. 

And when I think, that you have died like this, I get consoled, 
when it comes in my mind, 
that people in my family as well have died at a young age, 
after they previously experienced of long and terrible diseases the chronic sufferings. 

To all this history for one thing only I feel sorry, for Adam and his wife. 
When they extended their hand in order to cut from the tree the fruit of the sin, 
that transgression seemed to them like a small and meager and insignificant thing. 
But behold, what terrible roots came out from that transgression 
and what black branches and bitter and poisonous have come out. 

It seemed sweet to you, Eve, that fruit, just by looking at it. 
Behold however how bitter it is the outcome of that fruit 
and of that transgression of yours the consequence. 
Your transgression has corrupted Cain and it has perverted 
with the so called original sin his nature and his soul. 

And you are shedding, oh afflicted ancestors, bitter tears 
for the unfair killing of your good child, 
but also for the psychical death of your older son, 
who one such terrible crime he dared. 

I feel sorry for you and I cry together with you for the hardships, 
that the sin has brought on us, and also for the sighs, 
that it gave to us as heritage. 

End of chapter 3