PumpkinCookie;13161033:
You don’t seem to have read my posts attentively:
**405 Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants.
**
I answer that, There are two things in original sin: one is the privation of original justice
; the other is the relation of this privation to the sin of our first parent, from whom
it is transmitted to man through his corrupt origin. As to the first, original sin has no degrees, since
the gift of original justice is taken away entirely; and privations that remove something entirely, such as death and darkness, cannot be more or less, as stated above (Question 73, Article 2). In like manner, neither is this possible, as to the second: since
all are related equally to the first principle of our corrupt origin, from which principle original sin takes the nature of guilt; for relations cannot be more or less. Consequently it is evident that original sin cannot be more in one than in another.
-Aquinas, Question 82, reply to article 4, emphasis is mine.
All of us are
created guilty, bottom line. Further, the council of Carthage asserted, specifically against Pelagius, that “without God’s grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works” (proposition 5). We are born guilty, totally deprived of justice, totally unable to do anything meritorious and deserving of everlasting punishment. It is very clear from the historical record that “orthodoxy” has always held this position. Why would Augustine rage so savagely against Pelagius if he didn’t hold the opposing position? What do you think that quote from the 1993 catechism means? Read Aquinas’ reply to objection 2, article 1, question 82:
Actual sin is an inordinateness of an act: whereas original sin, being the sin of nature, is an inordinate disposition of nature, and** has the character of fault**
through being transmitted from our first parent, as stated above (Question 81, Article 1). Now this inordinate disposition of nature is a kind of habit, whereas the inordinate disposition of an act is not: and for this reason original sin can be a habit, whereas actual sin cannot. (emphasis mine).
Aquinas directly contradicts the 1993 Catechism here (if you read it as saying, essentially “no one is actually individually guilty of original sin”).
Further, read Article 9, Question 68 “Should Infants Be Baptized?”
newadvent.org/summa/4068.htm#article9
Aquinas is very clear:
I answer that, As the Apostle says (Romans 5:17), “if by one man’s offense death reigned through one,” namely Adam, “much more they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ.” Now children contract original sin from the sin of Adam; which is made clear by the fact that they are under the ban of death, which “passed upon all” on account of the sin of the first man, as the Apostle says in the same passage (Romans 5:12). Much more, therefore, can children receive grace through Christ, so as to reign in eternal life. But our Lord Himself said (John 3:5): “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Consequently it became necessary to baptize children, that, as in birth they incurred damnation through Adam so in a second birth they might obtain salvation through Christ.
Moreover it was fitting that children should receive Baptism, in order that being reared from childhood in things pertaining to the Christian mode of life, they may the more easily persevere therein; according to Proverbs 22:5: “A young man according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” This reason is also given by Dionysius (Eccl. Hier. iii). (emphasis mine)
The grim chorus of doom screeches in unison throughout the history of “orthodoxy,” available for all to see: we’re all hopeless, doomed sinners just for having been born. God justly thirsts for our everlasting punishment unless we receive the miraculous sacrament of baptism. Since a minority of human beings are baptized, and an even smaller number believe all the right things and avoid all serious sin, it is absolutely reasonable, given the truth of Roman Catholicism, to conclude that a huge majority of human beings are tormented for eternity.
Again, how is this “good news?”
