Man in Paradise – Original Justice/Integrity
- Man existed in harmony with God, in friendship with God.
- Proper love of God
- Man and Woman lived as a community of persons, in harmony.
- Proper love of Neighbor
- Man’s intellect, will, desires/passions, were rightly ordered to God.
- Proper love of Self. Self-mastery → Higher powers (intellect/will) submitted to God, lower powers(desires/passions) submitted to higher powers
The Story of the Fall: Genesis 3
- CCC 385 God is infinitely good and all his works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil. Where does evil come from? "I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution", said St. Augustine, and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For "the mystery of lawlessness" is clarified only in the light of the "mystery of our religion". The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on him who alone is its conqueror.
- CCC 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.
- CCC 387 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.
- CCC 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. 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.
Man in a state of Original Sin (effects of Original Sin)
- CCC 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. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.
- At the heart of every sin is a disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.
- Darkening of intellect, weakening of will
- Disorder of passions/desires
- Concupiscence
- Tension between Man and Woman → relationship marked by lust and domination.
- Visible creation becomes alien and hostile to man.
- Death makes its entrance into human history. “To dust you shall return.”
Transmission of Original Sin
- All men are implicated in Adam’s sin. Similarly, all are implicated and included in the universality of Christ’s (the new Adam) righteousness and sacrifice.
- CCC 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". 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. 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.
- Propagation, not imitation.
- Infants are born into a state of original sin, the lack of holiness, but are not guilty of any personal sin.
- Baptism cleanses original sin from the soul → concupiscence remains.
Contrast vs. Martin Luther
- Luther argued that the gift of original justice was part of/deeply ingrained in human nature. Therefore, losing the gift of original justice meant human nature was virtually destroyed.
- Intellect cannot know natural truths without grace.
- Man’s free will is also destroyed, therefore man’s lacks free will → he can only sin
- Concupiscence is the root of all sin → it is therefore the worst sin. Every temptation or act of man is a damnable act/sin.
- No distinction between mortal and venial sin.
Catholic Response
- The gift of original justice was added to nature, not part of it
- Therefore, the loss of this gift did not destroy our nature, but it did wound it
- After the fall, we continue as “in the image” of God, but we lost the likeness to God (holiness).
- The soul still can exercise the powers of intellect and will, though they are weakened → Can know natural truths, do natural good.
- Concupiscence is the tendency to sin, it is not a sin in itself. Experiencing a temptation is not a sin. How you respond to the temptation determines if the act is a sin or not.
- Mortal vs. Venial sin distinction (1 Jn 5:16-17)
- Pelagius (works alone) vs. Luther (faith alone)
- CCC 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) and at the Council of Trent (1546).
Law and Freedom
- Two views of freedom → Freedom of Indifference vs. Freedom for Excellence
- Nomos: Law
- “Auto”nomy → self-law (freedom of indifference, radical individuality)
- “Hetero”nomy → other-law (the law is totally alien to ourselves, law is an enemy of freedom)
- Theonomy → God’s law. (Freedom for excellence, accept God’s law, according to which we were created, accept the design, allows for true self-expression, the mystery of the person is revealed)
- The Christian life is a life of participation, harmony between what/who we are and what/who God is and what He calls us to.
- Sin is not the genuine exercise of freedom for this reason, it is enslavement, it diminishes our freedom → become a slave of passions, impulses, created goods.