How can I better understand sin and the soul?

[Telemachus]

I’ve been doing some thinking and reading (always a dangerous idea), and I’ve been troubled by the question of how it is that God infuses the soul within us at conception, and yet we are instantly subject to Original Sin and the deprivation of Grace from that moment onwards.

I think my fundamental misunderstanding stemmed from the idea that at conception we are made perfect by God in some sense, then something is immediately taken away. That is, that God infuses a soul to create a perfect human, filled with grace, but then this person is immediately damaged, or something.

Here’s some of the reading I was doing:
therealpresence.org/archives/God/God_010.htm
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=206670
newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm

Fr. Hardon sums up my misunderstanding pretty well: “The Pelagians argued that nothing unclean can come from the hand of God; therefore the souls of children, created by Him directly out of nothing, cannot be tainted with original sin.” So I guess I was thinking like a Pelagian!

The Catholic Encyclopedia had a good statement too:
“But according to Catholic theology man has not lost his natural faculties: by the sin of Adam he has been deprived only of the Divine gifts to which his nature had no strict right, the complete mastery of his passions, exemption from death, sanctifying grace, the vision of God in the next life. The Creator, whose gifts were not due to the human race, had the right to bestow them on such conditions as He wished and to make their conservation depend on the fidelity of the head of the family.”

This is my interpretation: the human soul is infused into every human being by a singular act of God, but God (for His own reasons) leaves this soul incomplete, or rather leaves our very being incomplete; we, as humans, are offered an existence beyond that which we know, and we either pursue it or we don’t to the extent we allow God to transform us. We as individual humans are given “natural” life, but are required to make a firm decision to make the next jump forward, or rather to allow God to bring us into a higher existence. However, our first ancestor, as representative of the race as a whole (complicated, and I’m still trying to grasp this), forfeited all this, and so we must consciously reject his rejection, so-to-speak, and embrace obedience and love.

Am I on the right track here, or off-the-mark somewhere?

Above all, can anybody make any suggestions as to what I might study to more fully develop my understanding of all this? This seems really fundamental to all aspects of our Christian faith, so I can’t imagine that our understandings of all this haven’t been more fully and precisely developed.

Merry Christmas,
Tele

 

[Carlan]

I’ve been doing some thinking and reading (always a dangerous idea), and I’ve been troubled by the question of how it is that God infuses the soul within us at conception, and yet we are instantly subject to Original Sin and the deprivation of Grace from that moment onwards.

I think my fundamental misunderstanding stemmed from the idea that at conception we are made perfect by God in some sense, then something is immediately taken away. That is, that God infuses a soul to create a perfect human, filled with grace, but then this person is immediately damaged, or something.

Here’s some of the reading I was doing:
therealpresence.org/archives/God/God_010.htm
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=206670
newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm

Fr. Hardon sums up my misunderstanding pretty well: “The Pelagians argued that nothing unclean can come from the hand of God; therefore the souls of children, created by Him directly out of nothing, cannot be tainted with original sin.” So I guess I was thinking like a Pelagian!

The Catholic Encyclopedia had a good statement too:
“But according to Catholic theology man has not lost his natural faculties: by the sin of Adam he has been deprived only of the Divine gifts to which his nature had no strict right, the complete mastery of his passions, exemption from death, sanctifying grace, the vision of God in the next life. The Creator, whose gifts were not due to the human race, had the right to bestow them on such conditions as He wished and to make their conservation depend on the fidelity of the head of the family.”

This is my interpretation: the human soul is infused into every human being by a singular act of God, but God (for His own reasons) leaves this soul incomplete, or rather leaves our very being incomplete; we, as humans, are offered an existence beyond that which we know, and we either pursue it or we don’t to the extent we allow God to transform us. We as individual humans are given “natural” life, but are required to make a firm decision to make the next jump forward, or rather to allow God to bring us into a higher existence. However, our first ancestor, as representative of the race as a whole (complicated, and I’m still trying to grasp this), forfeited all this, and so we must consciously reject his rejection, so-to-speak, and embrace obedience and love.

Am I on the right track here, or off-the-mark somewhere?

Above all, can anybody make any suggestions as to what I might study to more fully develop my understanding of all this? This seems really fundamental to all aspects of our Christian faith, so I can’t imagine that our understandings of all this haven’t been more fully and precisely developed.

Merry Christmas,
Tele

Tele, I can only relate my simple understanding in answer to your post.
Simply, God created us for himself to love, and He created us perfectly, just as he did our first parents Adam and Eve. Because of their sin of disobedience our perfection of soul was damaged, marred. Their disobedience was our inheritance from them, and as a result to be restored to that perfection we had to be born again,so to speak, by the washing of the soul in Baptism by water and Spirit in the name of the Trinity. If you are seeking a more profound understanding than mine, stay tuned I am sure it will be forthcoming Peace,and Merry Christmas to you, Carlan

 

[fhansen]

I’ve been doing some thinking and reading (always a dangerous idea), and I’ve been troubled by the question of how it is that God infuses the soul within us at conception, and yet we are instantly subject to Original Sin and the deprivation of Grace from that moment onwards.

I think my fundamental misunderstanding stemmed from the idea that at conception we are made perfect by God in some sense, then something is immediately taken away. That is, that God infuses a soul to create a perfect human, filled with grace, but then this person is immediately damaged, or something.

Here’s some of the reading I was doing:
therealpresence.org/archives/God/God_010.htm
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=206670
newadvent.org/cathen/11312a.htm

Fr. Hardon sums up my misunderstanding pretty well: “The Pelagians argued that nothing unclean can come from the hand of God; therefore the souls of children, created by Him directly out of nothing, cannot be tainted with original sin.” So I guess I was thinking like a Pelagian!

The Catholic Encyclopedia had a good statement too:
“But according to Catholic theology man has not lost his natural faculties: by the sin of Adam he has been deprived only of the Divine gifts to which his nature had no strict right, the complete mastery of his passions, exemption from death, sanctifying grace, the vision of God in the next life. The Creator, whose gifts were not due to the human race, had the right to bestow them on such conditions as He wished and to make their conservation depend on the fidelity of the head of the family.”

This is my interpretation: the human soul is infused into every human being by a singular act of God, but God (for His own reasons) leaves this soul incomplete, or rather leaves our very being incomplete; we, as humans, are offered an existence beyond that which we know, and we either pursue it or we don’t to the extent we allow God to transform us. We as individual humans are given “natural” life, but are required to make a firm decision to make the next jump forward, or rather to allow God to bring us into a higher existence. However, our first ancestor, as representative of the race as a whole (complicated, and I’m still trying to grasp this), forfeited all this, and so we must consciously reject his rejection, so-to-speak, and embrace obedience and love.

Am I on the right track here, or off-the-mark somewhere?

Above all, can anybody make any suggestions as to what I might study to more fully develop my understanding of all this? This seems really fundamental to all aspects of our Christian faith, so I can’t imagine that our understandings of all this haven’t been more fully and precisely developed.

Merry Christmas,
Tele

Yes, you’re on the right track, and I also agree it needs to be explained better. It’s hard to tell why all mankind fell along with Adam but the evidence of the fall is all around us and within us. The justice we lost is the direct relationship and bond of love between God and His creation-us. This is the right and natural order, according to Gods will. It’s obvious that this bond doesn’t exist in this world-we’re born lacking faith in, hope in, and love for God. Mans will reigns, he prefers himself to God, sin abounds, death is our end.

But God’s ultimate purpose was never to leave us in this lost state-it’s always been and continues to be the “deification” of man-raising him to a level even higher than the angels which is where we get the concept of a “Blessed Fault”, referring to the fall. Part of that process is man’s coming to choose God again; a Prodigal learning of his need for the Father after living in exile. Study the Catechism, Early Church Fathers, and books on doctrine such as Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludwig Ott.

 

[Nita]

I’ve been doing some thinking and reading (always a dangerous idea), and I’ve been troubled by the question of how it is that God infuses the soul within us at conception, and yet we are instantly subject to Original Sin and the deprivation of Grace from that moment onwards.

I think my fundamental misunderstanding stemmed from the idea that at conception we are made perfect by God in some sense, then something is immediately taken away. That is, that God infuses a soul to create a perfect human, filled with grace, but then this person is immediately damaged, or something.

You’re correct, that is a misunderstanding. Grace, sanctifying grace, has never been an integral constituent of human nature. That is, when God creates a soul, in order for it to be considered a perfect human, sanctifying grace does not have to be present in it. Sanctifying grace was an added supernatural gift given to the souls of Adam and Eve. Had God chosen not to ever give sanctifying grace to Adam and Eve, their souls would still have been perfect human souls.