Chapter I.
Having mentioned the occasion of speaking, Ambrosius approaches the sacrifices of Cain and Abel. He then explores what displeased God in the offering of the former. Then, after explaining the few who would strike a wide-ranging verdict against Cain, he teaches about the burnt offering of Abel.
Brothers, I desire to pay my debt, but I cannot find my creditors from yesterday, unless perhaps they thought we should be disturbed by an unexpected meeting: but true faith is never disturbed.
So, while they perhaps come, let us turn away the farmers who have been proposed, one of whom, that is Cain, from the fruits of the earth: but the other, namely Abel, offered a sacrifice to the Lord from the firstborn of his sheep (Gen. IV, 3, 4). I find nothing in the nature of the offerings that I would criticize, except that Cain also knew that his offerings were displeasing, and the Lord said: If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, you have sinned (Ibid., 7).
So where then is the crime? where is the fault? Not in the offering of a gift, but in the attitude of the offering. There are some who rightly judge that one person, in offering something, has chosen one thing, while another, in offering, has chosen something of lesser value. But we are not so lacking in the spiritual senses within us as to not understand that the Lord sought a bodily sacrifice, not a spiritual one. And therefore, he added, 'rest' (Ibid.), indicating that it is more tolerable to abstain from offering gifts than to offer a gift with an unbelieving spirit. For whoever does not know how to divide, does not know how to judge: but the spiritual person judges all things (I Cor. II, 15). And therefore Abraham divided the sacrifice that he was offering (Gen. XV, 10).
Abel also knew how to divide, who offered a sacrifice from the firstborn of his sheep (Gen IV, 4), teaching that it is not the gifts of the earth that please God, which had degenerated in the sinner, but those in which the divine grace of the mystery shines forth. Therefore, he prophesied that we would be redeemed from sin through the passion of the Lord, about whom it is written: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world (John I, 29). Hence, he also offered the firstborn, in order to designate the primogeniture. Therefore, it shows us the true sacrifice of God that we will be, of whom the Prophet says: Bring to the Lord the sons of rams (Psalm 28:1), and it is rightly confirmed by the judgment of God.
But to them it is said, 'Keep silent,' which I believe is a general statement applicable to all those outside the Church; for here I perceive the representation of many peoples whom divine judgment encompasses, among whom, in the case of Cain, it already rejected the offerings.