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."