Although Adam was created with great dignity and original holiness and justice, he was sort of neutral in one particular area: in his will. He didn’t necessarily know how well he had it, or even how great a being he already was; he hadn’t yet valued and embraced the gifts he had, let alone the One from whom they came. He wanted “more”, and ended up losing even what he had. But God, having created His universe in a “state of journeying to perfection”, as the catechism puts it, already had His plan of salvation prepared for humankind. As the human will is molded, as it becomes conformed with the will of God, as we come to freely choose the good, as we come to love, man increases in justice and dignity. That’s what we’re here to do, to learn how to will, in this world of sin and hard knocks, and where grace also abounds, what Adam did not yet will in Eden, a place where he had it made. Here’s a related paragraphs from the catechism:
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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**
