P
Peggy_in_Burien
Guest
Dear Murmur,
If I may, I would like to quote from the CCC and then add some comments of my own, to help answer your question about Adam passing along Original Sin.
Section Two; Chapter One; Article III Original Sin; Paragraphs 404- 406:
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 “concupiscense.” 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 in man and summon him to spiritual battle.
(293) St. Thomas Aquinas, De Malo 4,1.
(294) Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1511-1512
(295) Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1513
In my own words: The sin that Adam and Eve committed, was the sin of pride. They decided that they would like to be as smart and wise as God, therefore they disobeyed. Much the same sin as the sin of the Angels as described in Revelations.
Whether they took an apple from a tree at the urging of a talking snake is really not important. What they did was to set themselves up as little gods.
They broke their friendship with God, and what they passed along in human nature is the inclination to sin and evil. Look at any small child. Children do not automatically obey their parents, they must be carefully taught. We have all inherited not the actual sin of eating a forbidden fruit, but the nature of sinning. Whatever the “original sin” was, it sucked the Grace of God right out of humankind. Baptism restores that life of God back into our souls. I believe that unBaptised folks have a much harder time trying to be good, due to the lack of this grace. I believe this on personal observation.
We aren’t being punished for the actual sins committed by our forebears. We are inclined to sin because of the fall of mankind in the garden.
As to the part about Christ dying for us and wiping out all our sins: Christ’s death opened the Gates of Heaven, which had been closed off to mankind due to the sin of Adam. No one had been allowed in, before Christ’s death, no matter how righteous.
When my son breaks a window, I am not going to stop him from living in the house, but he will have to make repayment of the damage. God does expect us to make a repayment of our actual sins, even though we will eventually be allowed to come into Heaven, thanks to Christ’s death.
Well, that’s my way of looking at it, ignorant though I am.
If I may, I would like to quote from the CCC and then add some comments of my own, to help answer your question about Adam passing along Original Sin.
Section Two; Chapter One; Article III Original Sin; Paragraphs 404- 406:
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 “concupiscense.” 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 in man and summon him to spiritual battle.
(293) St. Thomas Aquinas, De Malo 4,1.
(294) Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1511-1512
(295) Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1513
In my own words: The sin that Adam and Eve committed, was the sin of pride. They decided that they would like to be as smart and wise as God, therefore they disobeyed. Much the same sin as the sin of the Angels as described in Revelations.
Whether they took an apple from a tree at the urging of a talking snake is really not important. What they did was to set themselves up as little gods.
They broke their friendship with God, and what they passed along in human nature is the inclination to sin and evil. Look at any small child. Children do not automatically obey their parents, they must be carefully taught. We have all inherited not the actual sin of eating a forbidden fruit, but the nature of sinning. Whatever the “original sin” was, it sucked the Grace of God right out of humankind. Baptism restores that life of God back into our souls. I believe that unBaptised folks have a much harder time trying to be good, due to the lack of this grace. I believe this on personal observation.
We aren’t being punished for the actual sins committed by our forebears. We are inclined to sin because of the fall of mankind in the garden.
As to the part about Christ dying for us and wiping out all our sins: Christ’s death opened the Gates of Heaven, which had been closed off to mankind due to the sin of Adam. No one had been allowed in, before Christ’s death, no matter how righteous.
When my son breaks a window, I am not going to stop him from living in the house, but he will have to make repayment of the damage. God does expect us to make a repayment of our actual sins, even though we will eventually be allowed to come into Heaven, thanks to Christ’s death.
Well, that’s my way of looking at it, ignorant though I am.