Genesis 4:1-15, 25 / Mark 8:11-13
When it comes to any competition, it is said that winning is not everything.
As much as it is not everything, some people would twist it and say that "winning is not everything; it is the only thing".
This is quite obvious in sports where sportsmanship is often put to the test and many fail it.
In the 1st reading, we heard that God favoured the offering of Abel but did not look with favour on Cain and his offering.
It may sound like a competition in which there is a winner and there is a loser and if we had been losers before, we would know how Cain felt.
Naturally, Cain was angry and downcast, and God even talked to him telling him to be well disposed or else the sin of resentment and bitterness is like a crouching beast waiting to devour him.
But Cain did not listen to God, and letting his anger develop into resentment and bitterness, it turned into a tragedy as the first murder in the Bible was committed.
God is always speaking to us but are we listening to Him? If only we are aware of the emotions within us, the signs that are in us, then we will know how God is speaking to us.
When anger flares up within us, we just have to look at the Bible and see what it says there.
"Do not let resentment lead you into sin. The sunset must not find you still angry. Do not give the devil his opportunity" (Ephesians 4:26-27)
We don't have to ask for any more signs. We only have to look and feel the signs within us. It is there that the Lord God is speaking to us.