How to Defeat the Spirit of Cain

How the love of God can defeat the Way of Cain.

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Before the COVID-19 crisis made landfall, the world could be described as conflicted, deeply contracted, selfish, self-serving, self-preserving, and the lover of the creature more than of God. At best most of the world's population can be described as the reckless lovers of pleasure and more hedonistic than ever, often relishing in the misery of others. If one could find a single word that says it all it could be that the people and the nations alike have descended to a level inconsistent with human dignity. In fact, individuals became more introverted, without the love and care of our common humanity, often revealed in actions. And in my instances, it was seen as normal to refuse and disregard the sufferings of others, to the extent that the wounded and the sick are often left to their fate when there is no benefit to be gained.

Even the mighty among the nations entered into a rat race to promote her own narrow, selfish and imagined interests above the love and good of other nations. In that way, the world population defined the true love of mankind not by the sacrificial agape, but more by the selfish lust and desire of living for oneself, even among those who profess to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without understanding that as fellow human being we have the responsibility of attending to the spiritual and the physical well-being of our brother. Whether they are languishing on the hospital bed, senior citizens or old people's homes, refuges centers, street beggars, prison houses, and etc. We are all called to care for their souls.

In fact, our faith teaches us that the whole human race is made of one family, of one blood, proceeding from the same parents. The Bible emphatically states that we are all related to one another under a single head called Adam. Whether the first or the Last Adam. So all men, whether they be poor, rich, the ignorant, the fallen, the heathen, and the atheist have a single origin and Creator.

But all that changed with the pandemic crisis. Just as things changed when the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, “I know not” and “Am I my brother's keeper”? Now for the umpteenth time, the same voice rang out in the midst of the crisis, saying to the world the same interrogatory question.  Even to date, He is still speaking in that small still voice to the individuals, the church, and to everyone, to our collective conscience, to mend our ways.

Meanwhile, all can hear the rendering of the same voice if one can add in our name to the following sentence "[your name] where is [name] your brother? And your answer to the question can be "I know not" thinking since no one sees us, so we are not responsible for no one. Or we can answer in the affirmative.

Or we can also limit the answer to our race while rejecting people of other nationalities. Moreover, we can decline our responsibility to the solidarity of humanity, while denying the right of God to make the demand from us. Hence, the outbreak of the coronavirus virus has changed all that while revealing the deep fractures in our society. It has shown how fragile our societal structure is constituted.

Nevertheless, the best of humanity was shown by the way everyone rallied around his neighbor when the crisis was getting out of hand. This is exactly what the timely and dedicated intervention, response, and solidarity of the public health workers, the police officers, fire brigades, supermarket workers, grocery store owners, road cleaners, pharmacy workers reflected the applause of the world. They demonstrated the true fulfillment of the law of love without knowing. Even all those who had laid down their lives in a place for us all to live in the ongoing battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

By their actions, the world has come to know and realizes that the most important occupation or vocation is not the political offices and the CEO of businesses. Because the world had qualified them as non-essential. Hence the most crucial and vital are those that are purposely engaged in the service of man. Even those that are directly related to the spiritual, physical, and psychological well-being of man.

In addition to that, the crisis has revealed that God holds man responsible for the welfare and the safety of his fellow human being. That man is born to keep and save his fellow man as exemplified by the essential services of the healthcare workers. For a long time, man has neglected his brother of another mother, denying the brotherhood of all men. Even many great nations have neglected the welfare of the poorer nations, calling them the third world nations, the worst place to live on earth. But the worst is still there, seen in all the stereotypes and the fault lines along with racial and religious preferences. Such as when people are judged by their skin color, culture, national and religious beliefs.

But God had moved and intervened in His goodness to prevent all that evil through constituting and instituting different kinds of relationships among mankind ranging from the religious and the spiritual, social, marital, filial, communal, and other for the betterment of man. The Lord has instituted them for the purpose of promoting the moral and ethical good of man.

As believers, therefore, God has made us the keepers of our brethren, calling us to alleviate the miseries of others and showing His love and goodness to all men. In fact, the believer is called to work with the Lord in reconciling the world to Himself, saving the body, and the souls of man. Therefore, it is our duty to care for our brethren with affection and sympathy. God commands it in the Old Testament and reinforced it in the New Testament saying thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Nevertheless, God in his wisdom gave us His laws to define our relationship to Him and to our neighbors.  And in His laws, six out of the Ten Commandments relate to our responsibilities to our fellow man. By being our brother’s keeper, we fulfill the requirements of the law. The spiritual interpretation of the law is based on the principle of being our brother keeper. And our obedience to the injunction to keep our brother cannot be confined to the narrow circle of our family, relatives, and friends but to the wider sphere of the world as demonstrated by the crisis.

Also, our Christian faith requires us to love our God; and love our brother. Besides, the apostolic letters admonish us to follow after and show the example of Christ. Just as Christ so loved the world and died to save her, so we are instructed to lay down our lives for our brothers. Even when our brothers are far away, we are still responsible for them as well as others when they are absent.

Hence every man is his brother's keeper. As the keeper of our brother, we are forbidden to do violence, or allow others to do the same to them. Including conditions when we can hinder evil happening to our neighbors. That means we are responsible to keep our brothers healthy and safe. We are responsible to keep the social distance to keep others safe. We are responsible to do all things according to the guidelines worked out by the governmental authorities. 

But in the reverse, falsehood, selfishness, indifference, and disobedience to the love of God can empower and embolden us to deny our brother in need. Just as Cain who despised his brother, the denial of our responsibilities can give us the right to distance ourselves, feeling, and quench our brotherly love from each other. This epitomizes the dominance of selfishness in humanity as can be seen before the pandemic struck mankind.

The "Me first" and "My country first" is the true revelation and the face of "Am I, my brother's keeper" that absolves us from our personal and collective responsibilities to serve others. It characterizes the symptoms of the debased heart who care nothing for the health of his brother. It also reveals the disposition of a man or nation without the love of God. This is what freezes our affection and kindles hatred towards others instead of the love of God shed in our hearts. This is the way of Cain that we are advised to reject. This the path to breaking the bonds of the Cainite spirit.