I. WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE
ABOUNDED ALL THE MORE
The reality of sin
386 Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality
other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize
the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin
unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even
as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history.
387 Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the
sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we
cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental
flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an
inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we
grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they
are capable of loving him and loving one another.
Original sin - an essential truth of the faith
388 With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to
some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos
of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they
could not grasp this story's ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the
death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.[261] We must know Christ as the source of
grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. The Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen
Christ, came to "convict the world concerning sin",[262] by revealing him who is its
Redeemer.
389 The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News
that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to
all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ,[263] knows very well that
we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of
Christ.
How to read the account of the fall
390 The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval
event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.[264] Revelation
gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original
fault freely committed by our first parents.[265]
II. THE FALL OF THE ANGELS
391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed
to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.[266] Scripture and the Church's
Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil".[267] The Church
teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other
demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own
doing."[268]
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.[269] This "fall" consists in the free choice
of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We
find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: "You will be
like God."[270] The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of
lies".[271]
393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine
mercy, that makes the angels' sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels
after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."[272]
394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer
from the beginning", who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from
his Father.[273] "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the
devil."[274] In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious
seduction that led man to disobey God.
395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful
from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up
of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his
kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual
nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is
permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and
cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but
"we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him."[275]
III. ORIGINAL SIN
Freedom put to the test
396 God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual
creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition
against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: "for in the
day that you eat of it, you shall die."[276] The "tree of the knowledge of good and
evil"[277] symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature,
must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and
subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.
Man's first sin
397 Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing
his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.[278]
All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.
398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He
chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and
therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to
be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God",
but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God".[279]
399 Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve
immediately lose the grace of original holiness.[280] They become afraid of the God of
whom they have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his
prerogatives.[281]
400 The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now
destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the
union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth
marked by lust and domination.[282] Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation
has become alien and hostile to man.[283] Because of man, creation is now subject "to
its bondage to decay".[284] Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this
disobedience will come true: man will "return to the ground",[285] for out of it he was
taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.[286]
401 After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin There is Cain's murder of
his brother Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise,
sin frequently manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God
of the Covenant and as transgression of the Law of Moses. And even after Christ's
atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians.[287] Scripture and the
Church's Tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in man's
history:
What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when
man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk
in many evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refusing to
acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link
him to his last end, and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign
within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures.[288]
The consequences of Adam's sin for humanity
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."[289] 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."[290]
403 Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery
which oppresses men and their inclination towards 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 which is the "death of the soul".[291]
Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny
infants who have not committed personal sin.[292]
404 How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human
race is in Adam "as one body of one man".[293] By this "unity of the human race" all
men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the
transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do
know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself
alone, but for all human nature. 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.[294] 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.
405 Although it is proper to each individual,[295] 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, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in
the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of
death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence". Baptism,
by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards
God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and
summon him to spiritual battle.
406 The Church's teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more
precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine's reflections
against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant
Reformation. Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without
the necessary help of God's grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence
of Adam's fault to bad example. The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught
that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified
the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be
insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on
original sin especially at the second Council of Orange (529)[296] and at the Council of
Trent (1546).[297]
A hard battle. . .
407 The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ,
provides lucid discernment of man's situation and activity in the world. By our first
parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man
remains free. Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had
the power of death, that is, the devil".[298] Ignorance of the fact that man has a
wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education,
politics, social action[299] and morals.
408 The consequences of original sin and of all men's personal sins put the world as a
whole in the sinful condition aptly described in St. John's expression, "the sin of the
world".[300] This expression can also refer to the negative influence exerted on people
by communal situations and social structures that are the fruit of men's sins.[301]
409 This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is in the power of the evil
one"[302] makes man's life a battle:
The whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil,
stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding
himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at
great cost to himself, and aided by God's grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own
inner integrity.[303]
IV. "YOU DID NOT ABANDON HIM TO THE
POWER OF DEATH"
410 After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and
in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his
fall.[304] This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium ("first gospel"): the first
announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the
Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.
411 The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the "New Adam"
who, because he "became obedient unto death, even death on a cross", makes amends
superabundantly for the disobedience, of Adam.[305] Furthermore many Fathers and
Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the "Proto-evangelium" as
Mary, the mother of Christ, the "new Eve". Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from
Christ's victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special
grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.[306]
412 But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great
responds, "Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's
envy had taken away."[307] And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is nothing to
prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God
permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, 'Where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more'; and the Exsultet sings, 'O happy fault,. . . which
gained for us so great a Redeemer!'"[308]
IN BRIEF
413 "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. . . It
was through the devil's envy that death entered the world" (Wis 1:13; 2:24).
414 Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to
serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man
in their revolt against God.
415 "Although set by God in a state of rectitude man, enticed by the evil one, abused his
freedom at the very start of history. He lifted himself up against God, and sought to
attain his goal apart from him" (GS 13 # 1).
416 By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had
received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings.
417 Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their
own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is
called "original sin".
418 As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to
ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is
called "concupiscence").
419 "We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with
human nature, "by propagation, not by imitation" and that it is. . . 'proper to each'" (Paul
VI, CPG # 16).
420 The victory that Christ won over sin has given us greater blessings than those which
sin had taken from us: "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20).
421 Christians believe that "the world has been established and kept in being by the
Creator's love; has fallen into slavery to sin but has been set free by Christ, crucified and
risen to break the power of the evil one. . ." (GS 2 # 2).
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