When as a young boy I first heard about the story of Cain and Abel, I thought I understood why God preferred Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s. Abel’s real, living lamb was certainly more valuable than Cain’s fruits and vegetables, I thought, especially if the offering included lima beans.
You see, I didn’t fully understand it then, but I knew enough about the Mass that sacrifices were often eaten, and I also knew that lima beans were one of my least favorite foods. If Cain offered lima beans, little wonder God wasn’t pleased. I know I’d take a gyro over lima beans any day. Heck, I’d just as soon fast as eat lima beans, because one could argue that eating lima beans is a significant sacrifice in and of itself. Something tells me that lima beans only started growing after the Fall. Original sin must have permeated the soil.
On a more serious note, I also felt sympathy for Cain. While his murder of Abel could never be justified, I also thought that Cain couldn’t help that he was a farmer and not a shepherd. Couldn’t God have given Abel at least a piece of the shepherding business, so that his offering would be found worthy too? It was seemingly self-evident to me that a lamb was more special than fruits and vegetables, even if you took the lima beans away.
But I also knew from faith and reason that God can only do good, so I never lost faith over the issue, although I wish I could have somehow lost out on some lima beans during my youth. In time, I took a more insightful look at this story which the Church has memorialized in the Mass:
In the course of time Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. (Gn 4:3-5, emphasis added)
Abel gave his first fruits in thanksgiving to His creator, while Cain disrespected God. Cain only provided “an offering,” not the most important one: the first fruits of his harvest. Worse yet, Cain compounded his misdeed with envy (Catechism, no. 2539), and then murder. Like his parents, Adam and Eve, Cain did not learn the lesson of seeking God first, of placing God above himself and his perceived ability to be self-sufficient. God had given him everything, including his very existence, yet Cain didn’t trust God and sought his own welfare first, as if God would somehow shortchange him or he would be able to make it on his own.
In contrast, Abel serves as an example for all of us. His lamb was found worthy because it was a “firstling.” What we do with our first fruits, whether financially or otherwise, speaks volumes about our priorities. God demands our first fruits not for His sake but for ours, so that we won’t go astray in a vain attempt at self-sustenance and self-fulfillment. Once again, the way of the goat can be very attractive, but the faithful, suffering sheep or lamb is the one who paradoxically finds true liberation:
If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? (Mt 16:24-26)
Abel established a standard for salvation history, a sacrificial blueprint. “First fruits” signified the most important, the best, and from here on out nothing but the best would suffice, whether Abraham’s offering of Isaac, his firstborn son according to the covenant (Gn 22:2), or God only accepting unblemished lambs for the Passover sacrifice. Jesus Christ would fulfill all of the types, for He is both only begotten Son and unblemished Lamb of God. In counteracting the unfaithful choice of his parents and suffering unjustly for his faithful witness, Abel himself also prefigures Jesus as the obedient, new Adam. Whereas Adam and Eve’s choice barred mankind from the Tree of Life, Jesus laid down His life that we might partake of His sacrificial first fruits, the eternal-life giving substance known as the Eucharist.
Abel, like Jesus, gave his best to God, even if it meant giving his own life. First fruits first. May we be willing like Abel.
© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange
Thomas J. Nash is a Senior Information Specialist at Catholics United for the Faith. He is the author of Worthy is the Lamb: The Biblical Roots of the Mass (Ignatius Press). He is also a co-author of Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass (Emmaus Road Publishing.
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