Introduction
My classmate shared that one morning he woke up late for a 7AM mass. He rushed to the church, put on his vestments, and then begun the mass. During mass, he noticed that he could hardly read the texts on the Roman Missal (prayers for mass) and the lectionary (biblical readings book). He thought it was because of his morning rush. However, as he continued his day, he had difficulty reading street signs, and reviewing documents. It turned out that he was experiencing blurry vision. He needed eyeglasses. His eyeglasses allowed him to see much clearer.
As Catholics, the Sacred Scriptures are our eyeglasses. The bible is the lens through which we view God, the world, and the meaning of our lives. Without the biblical lens, we would view life a totally different way. The scriptures help us make sense of the world in which we live, a world that although includes evil, suffering and death, still gives us reasons for hope.
In this 3-part series, I will touch on key doctrines of Catholic theology; they are original sin, grace, and our call to holiness/friendship with God. My hope is that a greater understanding of these doctrines will help us appreciate the good news and see our reality through the lens of scriptures.
The Fall, Original Sin, and its effects
Our Reality
Let’s examine our world in 2023. Globally, there are wars wagging on between Israel and Hamas, as well as Russia and Ukraine. Human trafficking is a growing problem, with an estimated 4.5 million people are victims of forced sexual exploitation. In our own nation statistics show that life span has decreased for three consecutive years. The second leading cause of death for children ages 12-15 is suicide. America is 5% of the world’s population, yet we consume 80% of the world’s opioids. The mental health crisis in our nation is going through the roof as people are exceedingly anxious. So why all this brokenness and suffering? Why is there sin? Why is there death? To attempt to answer these questions, we put on the lens of the Sacred Scriptures.
Genesis: What our faith teaches us
The Book of Genesis gives us insight about the creation and fall of human nature. Chapters 1-2 describe God’s goodness, and love. God creates the whole world out of nothing. The pinnacle of His creation is the creation of man and woman. Genesis tells us that God took Adam and Eve from the clay of the earth (material) and breathed into them the breath of life! It explains that God did not create human beings for slavery but for friendship! In the beginning, Adam and Eve had a state of original holiness and justice with God. They were enjoying the paradise that God had created for them.
Genesis Chapter 3 though, gives us the bad news. God gave Adam and Eve one commandment: not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, they were tempted by our common enemy, serpent/satan. They were told that if they ate of the fruit, their “eyes will be opened and you will be like gods” (Genesis 3: 5). They made this personal choice to sin, the original sin. This original sin of Adam and Eve was not murder, theft, or lying; it was more subtle. Their original sin was disobedience; they desired to become the arbiter/decider of good and evil. In a sense, that is the root of all our sins. God gives us His way, yet we choose another.
After Adam and Eve committed sin, God asked, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3: 9). Obviously, God is all-knowing, and He knew exactly where they were. But God spoke on a deeper level. He was asking, “Where are the people whom I created for friendship? Where did you go from my love and my way? Why?” Because of their sin, Adam and Eve were depraved of the original friendship and justice they had with God. It was a consequence of their sin. Since then, all human beings experience suffering, sin, and death. Recall that during creation, God breathed into Adam and Eve the breath of life; now under Sin, Adam and Eve will experience the loss of that breath, namely death.
Effects of Original Sin
Many people, including many Catholics, misunderstand the doctrine of original sin. They argue original sin is not just, because God is punishing us for a personal sin committed by Adam and Eve. Are we are being punished because of a sin of our ancestors? This is not the correct understanding of original sin in our Catholic faith. Original Sin refers to the deprivation of the original holiness, friendship, and justice that Adam and Eve had in the beginning.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, “Although it is proper to each individual original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice (Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 405).
It continues, “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 a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called “sin” only in an analogical sense: it is a sin “contracted” and not “committed” – a state and not an act. (CCC no. 404.
When we were born, we were not capable of committing any personal sin. However, because we share in the same human nature as Adam and Eve, we share in the wounds of that nature. Human nature is now weakened; it is inclined to ignorance, suffering, and selfishness.
Theologians call this inclination concupiscence. We all experience it. Concupiscence makes us more inclined to eat potato chips rather than our vegetables. It inclines us to give into the flesh and human weakness, rather than self-control. It inclines us to choose ourselves, rather than God and others. St. Paul explains this struggle in his letter to the Romans chapter 7, “for I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want” (Romans 7: 19).
Jimmy Akin, a Catholic Apologist, explains how we inherit original sin by way of an example. He writes, “The situation is like that of a rich man who gambles away his fortune and is unable to pass it on to his children. The gambler was personally at fault, but his children experience the deprivation and poverty that his actions brought about. In the same way, God gave our first parents an abundance of spiritual riches that they lost through their own folly. The fault was theirs, but we are born in spiritual poverty and out of divine intimacy.” (https://www.catholic.com/audio/ddp/original-sin-and-justice).
Conclusion
A scholar remarked that Original Sin is the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the Christian faith. Basically, we know original sin is true because we see and experience its consequences. Our lenses, the Scriptures, gave us insight into what the heck happened: God made everything good, especially human beings whom He created for friendship. Adam and Eve then sinned against God. As descendants of Adam and Eve, we are born into the state of original sin, which is the deprivation of that original holiness and justice in the beginning. Despite this reality, there is hope. Our biblical lenses will give us the reason for our hope and the message of salvation. We will explore the good news/gospel in part 2 of this series.