Day 57: Consequences of Adam’s Sin (402-406)
It’s Day 57!!
We’re reading Paragraphs 402 to 406
You guys, Congratulations
I know I’ve said this 1,000 times now.
Well, it can’t be 1,000 because it’s only Day 57
BUT…
The fact that you’ve stuck with this
By now hopefully you’ve gotten in to a kind of a rhythm where you realize OK, this is different than listening to the Bible
And this is going to be a little bit different in how you engage your brain when it comes to we’re not following a story, but we’re following THIS
(SQUIRREL!! 😉)
Actually when we talk about Original Sin, we talk about The Fall
We ARE kind of following a story
IN FACT…
These are some of the things that we can really connect them to our lives
Today we’re talking about the consequences of Adam’s sin for humanity
The consequences of this ONE sin
ORIGINAL SIN FOR ALL OF HUMANITY
Saint Paul says, “By one man’s disobedience, many, that is all men, were made sinners and sin came into the world through one man. And also through one man, one man’s act of righteousness, Jesus Christ’s act of righteousness, leads to acquittal and life for all of us”
We are all born AFFLICTED
When we talk about original sin, it is not a sin that is COMMITTED, but it is a sin that’s CONTRACTED
Paragraph 404 says, “Original sin is called ‘sin’ only in an analogical sense: It is a sin ‘contracted’ and not ‘committed’-a state and not an act”
One of the co-founders of the CFRs, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, has a book called The Original Wound
It’s so good!
And that’s what he calls original sin
He says, “It's a state, not an act.”
So that’s why we baptize babies
Every one of us is BORN into this state
THIS FALLEN STATE
THIS WOUNDED STATE
We remain good
BUT…
THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES
We have this ATTRACTION TO SIN
We have DARKENING OF OUR INTELLECT
We have A WEAKENING OF OUR WILL
WE DIE
AND YET…
WE REMAIN GOOD!!
Paragraph 406 talks about how over the course of 2000 years, there were different extremes or distortions of what original sin is
For example, in the fifth century, there’s Pelagianism
Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without any necessary help of God’s grace, could lead a morally good life
So Adam’s fault was reduced to BAD EXAMPLE
On the other hand…
Some of the first Protestant reformers taught that original sin had radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom
There’s a doctrine in some non-Catholic Christian circles as TOTAL DEPRAVITY
That would mean that here’s a human being that they is totally depraved
The Catholic Christian view is that we’re not DEPRAVED but that we are DEPRIVED
We remain GOOD BUT BROKEN
We remain BEAUTIFUL BUT BROKEN
So we need God’s grace absolutely
We’re still made in his image and likeness
We still have goodness because we still continue to participate in God’s existence
He gives us our existence
He holds us in being
And we still have the capacity, by his grace, to be an image of Him to the world
To receive his grace
So, we’re GOOD BUT FALLEN
GOOD BUT BROKEN
DEPRIVED BUT NOT DEPRAVED
I haven’t COMMITTED this sin, but I have CONTRACTED it
I was born into this brokenness, all of us have been
At the same time…
GOD HAS NOT GIVEN UP ON US!!
And that’s what we’ll talk about today and tomorrow and the days following
Before we launch into that, let’s say a prayer!!
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in heaven, we call upon your name. In the name of your son Jesus Christ, we pray. We pray that you continue to meet us with your grace. We pray that you continue to remind us that, yes, we are broken but we remain beautiful. That we are broken but we remain good. And that we need you. That you’re not optional, Lord God, you are necessary. Your grace is necessary. Without you, we can do nothing. And so, come to our aid. Come with us right now. Come be with us right now. Guide us and give us the strength that on our own we do not have, to be the people that you have created and redeemed us to be. Come, Holy Spirit, give us the divine life, and help us to walk as Jesus walked. In His Holy Name, we pray, Amen”
Those are some ACTION-PACKED paragraphs!!
Original Sin is connected to our human nature
Paragraph 404 says, “By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of human nature”
We have a human nature that is deprived of original holiness and justice
REMEMBER…
The state in which Adam and Eve were originally created was that state of ORIGINAL HOLINESS AND JUSTICE
Earlier, in Paragraph 404, “We do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature”
God wanted this for ALL OF HIS HUMAN CREATURES
For all those beings He made in His image and likeness
When Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, it affected HUMAN NATURE just like it affected ALL OF CREATION
All the creation is now out of whack
ORIGINAL SIN BROKE THE WORLD!!
The world remains good
Human beings remain good
AND YET…
WE ARE GOOD BUT BROKEN
So how does this work?
How is it that sin is passed on simply by propagation?
By procreation?
By new human beings being made and generated, and being born into this world
Paragraph 404 says that it is a MYSTERY
AND YET…
Sin doesn’t just affect our souls
Sin doesn’t just affect the immaterial world or the spiritual world
As human beings, we are made of BODY and SPIRIT
So we’re WOUNDED in our body and spirit
And some of the consequences are VERY VERY CLEAR
One of the consequences is DEATH
Paragraph 403 says, “The Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination toward evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam’s sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin in which is the ‘death of the soul’”
That phrase, “death of the soul” comes from the Council of Trent
It’s a recognition that we have an INCLINATION TOWARDS EVIL
AND…
DEATH that we ALL experience
AND…
We are ALL born afflicted by this
That’s one of the reasons why we recognize that we baptize infants who could not POSSIBLY have committed personal sin
AND YET…
EVERY HUMAN BEING is born into this BROKEN STATE
EVERY HUMAN BEING is born into the state where our relationship with God has been WOUNDED
Adam and Eve were created with ORIGINAL JUSTICE AND HOLINESS
And we are born into a world where that original holiness and justice has been BROKEN
So, what happens?
Paragraph 405 says, “ Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God. But the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist.”
What are some of the consequences to human nature?
A DARKENING OF THE INTELLECT
We can think, but we don’t always think CLEARLY
A WEAKENING OF THE WILL
We can choose, but we don’t always choose with PERSISTENCE or PERSEVERANCE
We don’t always choose well
We’re all oriented towards death
WE ALL WILL DIE!!
So these consequences still exist
AND…
We have this thing call CONCUPISCENCE, which is AN INCLINATION TOWARD SIN
Baptism ERASES Original Sin
But those CONSEQUENCES are still in us
What do they do?
Paragraph 405 says, “Those persist in man and summon him to a spiritual battle.”
Tomorrow we’ll talk about that
IT IS A HARD BATTLE!!
We’re fighting against this BROKENNESS in us
This brokenness in the world is going to be a HARD BATTLE
There are different ways that people who have departed from the consistent Catholic Faith have said
EITHER…
That original sin is JUST A BAD EXAMPLE
Pelageous had maintained that
So basically, If you want, on your own, you can do it
You can basically be good on your own WITHOUT THE HELP OF GOD’S GRACE
WHICH IS ERROR!!
OR…
On the other extreme
WE ARE SO BROKEN THAT WE HAVE BECOME DEPRAVED
THAT ALSO IS AN ERROR
Human nature, because of original sin, has become DEPRIVED of that original state of HOLINESS
We’re DEPRIVED of that original state of JUSTICE
BUT…
WE ARE NOT DEPRAVED!!
We remain GOOD but BROKEN
IN THE MIDST OF THIS WORLD THAT’S BROKEN AND YET BEAUTIFUL…
GOOD AND YET BROKEN…
HERE WE ARE!!
WE ARE SUMMONED TO SPIRITUAL BATTLE!!
We’ll talk about that more tomorrow
Keep this in mind
You and I are living that RIGHT NOW!!
So keep up your prayers
Keep praying for each other
WE BELONG TO EACH OTHER (We belong to the LIGHT we belong to the thundeeerrrrrr!!! Tell me there are some Pat Benatar fans out there!!😉)
Through one man’s sin, death entered the world
So through Jesus Christ, one man’s act of righteousness, LIFE IS POSSIBLE
WE ARE ALL CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER IN OUR BROKENNESS
WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR ONE, HE’S DONE FOR ALL
It’s a matter of us saying YES to that
It’s a matter of us COOPERATING with that act of God’s grace
So since we are connected in this incredible, incredible way, then we HAVE to pray for each other
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
Scripture References & Reflections
- compiled by Andrew Adamany
Bible Translation - RSVCE
CCC 402 "All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned." The Apostle contrasts the universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men."
Romans 5:12
"Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned"
Romans 5:18–19
"Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous."