I’ve never been convinced by that idea I am responsible for the sin of another human being. How does one limit it adam’s single sin and not all of his sins and the sins of the billions of mothers and fathers before him? Why can’t we inherit every single sin? It makes more sense to say we have inherited Adam’s nature and not his actual sin.
The actual sin of Adam we inherited is the disobedience of and separation from God Himself, which constitutes an enormous wound or injustice in the universe. Man is “born dead” now, so to speak, in need of revival by reconciling with God so He may take up His rightful residence within. Then and only then is integrity restored to man.
And, as with our ancestor Adam, our
wills are involved. Even as we come to gain the knowledge of God, via the revelation He gave to the church, we still don’t change all at once; we struggle with sin, rebellion against God and His will. Our love of God and neighbor is demonstrated, in part, by the extent to which we don’t sin against either, more so by the way we actually express authentic acts of love for them. The Catholic Catechism teaches that, by his act of disobedience, man
preferred himself to God. This preference, that caused the original separation and perpetuates it, is what must be dealt with in us. And this preference-or lack of it - is demonstrated in how we live our lives. And full justice for man is finally attained when he loves God with his whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and his neighbor as himself.
But meanwhile there’s still something missing in us, this fullness of life/love/grace, this life of God in us with whom we must commune. And the evidence for this fault can be found by reading past and current human history-in the daily newspaper, for example- as well as our own personal histories.
From what I understand, some Eastern teachings maintain that OS, or Ancestral Sin, affects us mainly by having caused
death to enter our world. This causes concupiscence to arise because of the unavoidable sense that we’re trapped in a world where our time is limited, kind of like cattle moving inexorably towards slaughter. However, IMO, while true, this does not go far enough in explaining why man sins; there seems to me to be a predisposing
proclivity for sin in us, as explained above, that reveals itself almost as soon in life as we’re able to express it, a proclivity that seems to be of the same stuff as-in solidarity with-Adam’s sin, an
unreasonable, selfish proclivity that asserts itself at times almost in spite of or in denial of death, as if still believing we won’t die.
Perhaps to sum it up more simply, I think the bottom line in terms of what man inherited from Adam is the idea that man doesn’t need God. And that’s what Jesus came to rectify. Just some thoughts.
