Why is it that, since the redemption, we have not been returned to the state of Original Justice like that of Adam and Eve before the fall? Christ was like the New Adam so why do we still suffer from the defects of original sin? Why was it not restored?
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 concupiscence". Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.
Baptism
is said to make man just again, but justification, in Catholic teaching, is a process, i.e. justification can be
increased-whereby we turn fully back to God, reversing the sin of Adam & Eve-and the resulting separation from Him- within ourselves, until our wills are one with His; we are perfected in love for Him and neighbor. This fits with God being the Potter and us the clay, with He molding us into the beings He desires, but with our cooperation.
It’s a matter of our being drawn, of our *wills *being educated so to speak, so that we’ll choose rightly, without coercion, knowing why we’ve come to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.In this sense we’re all Prodigals, needing to find out for ourselves the “value” of God, something Adam & Eve didn’t yet know, so that we can return home and love Him freely and as He deserves.
Adam & Eve sinned by determining that they could find more life, happiness, and fulfillment apart from God first of all, the true source of life and happiness. With our own struggle with concupiscence we continue to have the opportunity to find out whether or not there’s anything in Gods creation that can make us happier than God, Himself. Part of the glory God desires to raise us to is in gaining the wisdom/integrity to make the right choice.
Let us put it very simply: man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope. Pope Benedict, Spe Salvi.
