Abel was very discriminate in his choice of offerings, whereas Cain showed no such discrimination. Abel selected and offered the choicest of his first born and of his fat ones, while Cain either offered young grains or [certain] fruits that are found at the same time as the young grains. Even if his offering had been smaller than that of his brother, it would have been as acceptable as the offering of his brother, had he not brought it with such negligence. They made their offerings alternately; one offered a lamb of his flock, the other the fruits of the earth. But because Cain had taken such little regard for the first offering that he offered, God refused to accept it in order to teach Cain how he was to make an offering. For Cain had bulls and calves and an abundance of animals and birds that he could have offered. But he offered none of these on that day when he offered the first fruits of his land.
What would have been the harm if he had brought ripe grains or if he had chosen the fruits of his best trees? Although this would have been easy, he did not do even this. It was not that he had other intentions for his best grains or his best fruits; it was that, in the mind of the offerer, there was no love for the one who would receive his offering. Therefore, because Cain brought his offering with negligence, God despised it on that account, lest Cain think either that God did not know of Cain's negligence, or that God preferred the offerings rather than those who were offering them.
From: St. Ephrem the Syrian: Selected Prose Works, The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 91, 1994, CUA Press.
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