Chapter IX.
God questioned Cain, not to learn, but to induce him to confess. His response is impious towards God and nature; and God's opposite response is shown to wonderfully teach the piety of brotherly love. From God, the righteous are heard even when dead, so that they may truly live, and the sinners are dead. These ones are tormented by present and future evils, but are more troubled by present evils.
27. Now let us consider by what reasoning God questioned Cain about his brother, as if he did not know that he had been killed. But with regard to the knowledge of God, he rebukes the one who denies and responds as if knowing: The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me (Gen. IV, 10): but with regard to profound reasoning, he warns sinners to repentance. For confession is a summary of punishments. Hence, in secular judgments, those who deny are tormented on the rack, and the judge is moved by the mercy of the one who confesses. There is a certain shame in admitting certain sins and acknowledging guilt, rather than shifting blame but recognizing it. Shame softens the judge towards the guilty, while obstinacy incites denial. God wants to motivate you to repentance, wants you to hope for forgiveness, wants to demonstrate through your confession that He is not the author of evil. For those who attribute their sins to a certain cause, as the Gentiles argue, they seem to be accusing divine decree or their own actions, as if the cause of their sin is their own power. For whoever kills under compulsion, kills as though unwillingly. But those things that are done by us have no excuse, but those things that are done apart from us are excusable. However, how much more severely to bring back to God what you have done in sin and to transfer the blame for your guilt to the author not of crime, but of innocence.
But consider the answer of the murderer: 'I do not know,' he says, 'whether I am the guardian of my brother' (Gen. IV, 9). Although this statement reveals presumption, it nevertheless implies that if he had considered his brother's well-being, he should have been a guardian of piety. For who should have been more obligated to protect his brother than he? But how could he fulfill the duty of brotherhood, when he did not acknowledge the obligations of kinship? Or how could he possibly show obedience to nature, when he did not show reverence to God? He denies first as if in the presence of an ignorant person: he rejects the duty of fraternal protection, as if he were devoid of nature; he avoids judgment, as if he were free-willed. Why are you surprised if he did not recognize piety, who did not recognize the author? And therefore you are taught by this series of Scriptures that faith is the root of all virtues. Hence the Apostle says: For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus (I Cor. III, 11); and whatever you build upon this foundation, it alone will be for the profit of your work and for the reward of your virtue.
29. Therefore, the Lord fittingly responds to one who foolishly denies, saying: The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me (Gen. IV, 10), that is, why do you not know where your brother is? You were alone with your two parents, your brother should not have been able to hide among so few. Or is it because your parents cannot be accusers? For I do not want that the bond which is the author of salvation becomes the author of danger. In you alone has nature lost its laws. Therefore, do you think that the crime is hidden because parents should not accuse? But the condemnation is even greater for you. For if dear names of relationship should not accuse, much more should they not kill. But if you reject me as a witness and refuse an arbitrator, the voice of your brother's blood is a witness that cries out to me. It accuses you with greater authority than if your brother were alive. You were alone, who else could have killed him? If you accuse your parents, you prove yourself to be a parricide. He could have killed his brother, who does not spare his parents. He could have been a murderer, who desires to prove himself descended from murderers.
And he says well: The voice of your brother's blood cries out, not the brother cries out. This innocence and grace of brotherhood also preserves in death itself. The brother Abel does not accuse, so as not to appear a parricide. His own voice does not accuse, nor does his soul, but the voice of his blood accuses, which you yourself shed. Therefore, your crime, not the brother, accuses you. At the same time, the complaint is taken away from the criminal. One cannot complain based on another's testimony when one confesses the crime through their own action. It is a small matter, compared to the deed. Yet even the earth itself is a witness, for it has absorbed the blood. And it is well said: The voice of your brother's blood cries out from the earth - it does not say, cries out from your brother's body, but from the earth it cries out. And if the brother is spared, the earth is not spared. If the brother lies motionless, the earth condemns. It itself is both witness and judge in you: a more bitter witness, still wet with the blood of your fratricide; a harsher judge, so tainted with such a crime that it opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand. And she indeed opened her mouth, as if to receive words of piety from her brothers, fearing nothing when she saw her brothers, which she knew to be the source of love due to their shared blood, not hatred. For how could she suspect patricide, when she had not yet witnessed homicide? But you have shed blood, the mourning of which itself is a contamination. 'It will not increase,' she said, 'to give her virtue to you.' How innocent is her revenge, who, having been so gravely violated, is content with not benefitting, and seeks not to harm.
31. Not mediocre also is the doctrine that says: The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me; for God hears even his righteous ones who are dead, because they live to God. And rightly they are considered alive; because even if they have tasted the death of the body, they receive incorporeal life, and are illuminated by the splendor of their merits, and also enjoy eternal light. Therefore, God hears the blood of the righteous: but he turns away from the prayers of the wicked; for even if they seem to be alive, they are more wretched than all the dead, carrying around their flesh like a tomb in which they have buried their wretched soul. For what else is it but buried, which is rolled within the earth, and enclosed by earthly greed and other vices, so that it cannot breathe the air of heavenly grace? This kind of sinner is cursed by the earth, which is the lowest and last part of the world. Above, indeed, is heaven, and what is in heaven: the sun, moon, and stars, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim. There is therefore no doubt that they condemned him and the things above him, whom the lower things also condemned. For how is he absolved by a pure and celestial sentence whom neither the earth could absolve? And therefore, groaning and trembling, he is commanded to be above the earth.
32. The obvious and general reason is that all that is evil is present and will come. The present evils cause sadness, while the future ones cause fear. But present evil is more disturbing than future evil. Hence Cain said to God: My cause is greater than that I should be forgiven. If you forsake me today, I will hide myself from your face. For there is nothing more serious than being abandoned by God while wandering, so that one cannot repent. The death of the sinner brings an end to sinning: but life, deprived of divine guidance, is precipitated and falls into worse things; just as when a shepherd abandons the flock, wild beasts attack: so when God abandons man, the devil assails. It is a serious matter, especially for the ignorant, to not have a guide. Malice creeps in, wounds increase when there is no medicine. However, he who wants to hide guilt conceals himself and covers up sin. For the one who does evil hates the light and seeks the hiding places of their sins. But the righteous does not hide from their Lord God, but instead offers themselves, saying: Behold, it is I who do not have a guilty conscience, which I fear being discovered.
33. Therefore, rightfully so, he hides himself, feeling guilty, and says: 'Anyone who finds me will kill me.' A person of noble character fears present death, neglects eternal death, and does not shy away from divine judgment; they only pray for the destruction of the body. But why did he fear being killed, when he had only his parents on Earth? Indeed, he could also fear attacks from beasts, as he had violated the laws of divine authority; and he could not presume to harm other subject animals, as he had taught mankind how to kill. He was able to fear even his parents as parricides, who had taught that parricide could be committed. Indeed, parents were also able to learn from their son, what offspring learned from their parent.