Cain and Abel
This was the reading at mass this morning. I found it quite interesting. When you look at it, it is about worship. As a protestant I always missed that. There is an assumption that how you worship is unimportant. What matters is what your heart is like. So we would always jump to the conclusion that Cain’s sin was his attitude and not his action. But that is not what it says. Look at Genesis 4:7:
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
It talks about what Cain did being the problem. Cain was worshipping God in the wrong way. It is about liturgy. It talks about the consequence of wrong worship. God warns Cain it would make him unable to master sin. Then the story goes on to show just how big a deal that is. Cain commits murder. Can worship really be a matter of life and death? It seems like it was in Gen 4.
This is another areas where being Catholic allows us to be obedient. Protestants want to worship in obedience to God but scripture does not contain any specific instructions on how to conduct a worship service. So they are on their own then. Sure they pray and try to discern God’s will as best they can but they have no way to tell what is right or wrong. As Catholics we are able to know God’s will. God has led His church to worship Him as He desires.
Now at first that seems like a bad thing because traditional Catholic worship does not connect with our culture the way protestant worship is designed to. So it is less enjoyable. But it is designed to transcend culture and connect us with God. This is more important. Secular art can always reflect on our own culture. That is a good thing but it is a human thing. We don’t need the supernatural gifts of the church to do that. Liturgy is not supposed to have music that reminds us of what we hear on the radio and speakers that sound like secular motivational or political speakers. The church should have that but not in the liturgy.
The mass should be about doing exactly what God has asked the church to do in exactly the way He has asked us to do it. If we do what is right our offering will be accepted. If we do what is wrong then sin is crouching at our door.
Why did Cain worship the wrong way though? Because his heart was in the wrong place. His worship was in consequence of his heart. You cannot take the consequence on its own and ignore the act that had to happen within his own self first.
What you should note is that God is not saying that what Cain did was a sin, but that it was just wrong and would become a way for sin to get into his life. Which it did, as you pointed out.
Perhaps you do not mean this, but from what I gather from your post, you are trying to tie doing a mass exactly right and perfect to whether or not you are going to sin. You should look at the parallels between the story and people who go to mass. If your attitude when you go to mass is not in tune with God and you are drifting off and thinking of other things, then even if the mass is done in the right order and with the right intentions by the priest, it doesn’t do squat for you.
I should also point out that while I love the traditional masses, there are many masses done today with the “music of the generation”. Does that mean that those who go to that sort of mass and feel more connected to it are closer to sin? I am sure you do not mean that, but your blog points in that exact direction.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:49 amI don’t think it is a matter of doing mass exactly right. It is just a matter of knowing there is a right way to do it. That is a way that God wants that might not be what I want.
I am not saying attitude is unimportant. I am just saying what we do is also important. We can do the wrong thing with a good attitude and it does matter.
As far as “music of the generation” goes. There are limits. The question is not just “Do I feel more connected?” That is a self centered mindset which is not what worship is about. The question is more “How does God want to be worshipped?”. Asking this question presupposes that your heart is in the right place. Not trying to satisfy your desire to worship but trying to please God anyway you can. Ultimately that means connecting with the way Jesus pleased God with His sacrifice.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:32 amI’ve always said, Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because he offered SOME of his produce. Abel offered his BEST, which God has always demanded. You sacrifice the best of your flock, nothing blemished or damaged in any way, not the ordinary, but the best.
So I think both of you are right. We are obligated to worship God the way God wants, and what could be the best more than the Son of God, Jesus Christ? So our offering must be the perfect victim, but also while the way we offer the Mass need not be absolutely perfect (we ARE human after all) we ought to do our best to offer Mass.
In other words, we must avoid deliberate distractions, or being deliberately late, etc. We must do our best to participate interiorly as well as we can.
And as Mother Teresa said, it’s not so much about doing great things (like an absolutely PERFECT Mass) but doing little things with great love. And great love would have us offer the Church’s perfect sacrifice as well as possible. The best music you can manage, the best vestments a parish can afford, the most attention you can manage (which will be different for a single person, and a mom with six kids!)
May 21st, 2008 at 5:21 am