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Instruction 2

The Fall of Man and original sin

Father S. Well, Mr. Jackson, have you had any difficulty in accepting what you were taught in the last instruction?

Mr. J. No, Father; only I was impressed by what you said about the fallen angels — the poor devils, who have lost heaven for good.

Father S. It does seem sad, but it was all their own fault. They knew what would be the consequences of their rebellion, and possessing free will, could have chosen to obey the Almighty. They surely could not have expected to be rewarded, and rewarded eternally, for rebellion against their Creator, their only Lover, the One Who drew them out of nothingness, clothed them with beauty and offered them happiness indescribable in His own heavenly home. Eternal reward had no alternative but eternal separation from God; if they could not have heaven, they must be excluded from heaven, which is the worst torment of hell.

The Almighty dealt quite similarly with the first human creatures He made; that is, He tested their loyalty with a promise of heaven for fidelity and a threat of hell for disobedience. We shall take this up presently. According to the Bible (Gn 1-5), God made the universe and all it contained in six days, beginning with purely material things, followed by the lower kind of living things, then by animals, and finally by man, who was to have only a temporary home here below. His final destiny, like that of the angels, would be heaven; but like the angels, he would receive it only as a reward for service. God could deal honorably with man in no other manner and still leave him what he is, a free being.

Mr. J. Was the whole structure of the universe really formed in six days?

Father S. Not likely. Most experts in the interpretation of Sacred Scripture are inclined to support geologists who contend that the word “day” used by Moses, could not have been the brief period spanned by twenty-four hours. Not that God could not have produced all in six days or even six seconds, but they say facts are against the literal “day.”¹ We measure our days from sunrise to sunrise, but, according to the Bible, the sun was not made until the fourth day. The word “day,” as used by Moses, in the absence of a better word, may have covered a very long period of time. The Church does not oppose this view.² What we wish to note is that man, who appeared on the scene, differs from all other living creatures of the visible world in this, that he was made to serve God here and win for himself eternal happiness with God hereafter.³ Speaking of the creation of man, after all material things were formed, the Bible says that the Almighty created him after His own image (Gn 1:27), which refers chiefly to the soul, because God does not have a body. Man’s soul is like God in this, that it is a spirit, immortal, and endowed with understanding and free will.⁴

Mr. J. Do not scientists hold that man’s body evolved from an ape?

Father S. Some hold that, but offer no convincing proof. They say that an ape’s body is similar in construction, but that does not mean anything. Since man has been on earth for thousands of years, why are there still apes? All should have evolved into human bodies long ago. But the most renowned scientists have discarded the “ape” theory. Even if the evolutionists were right, we are not contending that man differs so much from the animals as to body, but as to soul. Our very conversation proves the spirit within our bodies. Every effect shows the nature of its cause. Our thoughts, whether expressed in word or not, are spiritual; they certainly are not material, for they cannot be seen or handled. Therefore their source, the soul, must be spiritual. And a spirit cannot die (Wis 3:1-4). It is not made of parts into which it can dissolve or corrupt. Hence, whether God made Adam’s body out of the earth or not, matters little. The Bible says, and reason proves it, that God breathed into his body a living soul, a spirit that would ever live, and hence excel in value the whole material creation. This fact itself explains why God should have so interested Himself in man.⁵

Mr. J. Doesn’t the Bible say that God formed Eve’s body from a rib of Adam?

Father S. Yes; and that is easy as well as pleasant to believe. If Adam’s body was made directly by God, Eve’s should have been, for Adam and Eve having been the first man and woman, could not have been born as other people are. God intended and did make Adam and Eve husband and wife immediately, thus they became the first parents of the whole human race. Moreover, by forming Eve from a rib of Adam, God emphasized the oneness that should characterize the married pair: “They shall be two in one flesh” (Gn 2:24).

Mr. J. There is surely something very fitting in that.

Father S. Now I must inform you what God’s original intention was concerning all mankind, providing our first parents would not disobey Him. God not only gave to them all that belonged to a complete human nature, such as keen intelligence of mind, physical health, and sharp senses of body, but He elevated their nature by causing them to share in His own divine life as far as it is humanly possible in this world and clothing their souls with a supernatural beauty, which will be frequently referred to as “sanctifying grace.” In this condition, their souls bore God’s own image, reflected His own divine life, and hence were objects of His intense love.⁶ But that was not all God did for our first parents, and was ready to do conditionally for all their descendants. He intended that earth should be a veritable paradise for them. They lived in a state of complete earthly happiness because God gave them full knowledge befitting their position; they were in no way disturbed by evil inclinations of their bodily desires for the pleasures of food or sex; they were free from all bodily suffering and hardship, and would never die. These perfections were gifts which were not due to them, but by which God generously corrected the natural imperfections which their nature would have had. However, these gifts would be lost by them for themselves and their descendants — the entire human race to come — if they, like so many of the angels, would not prove themselves loyal to their Creator.⁷

Mr. J. Does the Bible really say that we should not have to die, had Adam not sinned?

Father S. Yes. In the Book of Wisdom 2:23, 24, we read: “God created man incorruptible … but by the envy of the devil, death came into the world.” And Saint Paul (Rom 5:12) speaks most plainly: “Through one man sin entered into the world and through sin death, and thus death has passed into all men.” That death would follow only as a consequence of sin is evident from the very threat of God to Adam: “In what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death” (Gn 2:17). Even the necessity of wearisome labor for the maintenance of life is a consequence of our first parents’ sin: “Because thou hast … eaten of the tree … in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken; for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Gn 3:17-19).⁸

Mr. J. But, Father, to me this sin does not appear to have been so bad. If I understand the case right, our first parents plucked from a tree and ate fruit, which God forbade them. Or is the “eating of fruit” a figure of speech to express something more vile?

Father S. No, in the true sense, they ate fruit, which God had forbade them to eat. But, it must be remembered that their loyalty was on trial; it was a matter of principle; God was testing their obedience; His commandment was easy to observe, but it was grave because so much depended upon their observance of it. God, in effect, said to them: “I am the Lord, your God, Who made you for Myself; heaven is offered to you in reward for a slight act of obedience; but as free beings you are at liberty to disobey. The consequences of disobedience will be the loss of My friendship and the withdrawal of the gifts of freedom from death, pain and evil passion from yourselves and all your descendants.”

God permitted one of the fallen angels, who envied man his opportunity to gain heaven, to tempt Eve, and she heeded, in disregard of God’s orders, as we read in Genesis 3:6: “And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold; and she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat.”

Mr. J. And what happened?

Father S. As far as Adam and Eve were concerned, they lost the grace that made them friends of God and worthy of living the life of heaven which had been promised to them. Besides this they became subject to death, to suffering and to a strong inclination to evil; also they were expelled from the earthly paradise in which they had dwelt.⁹

As far as Adam’s descendants are concerned, we have come into the world deprived of grace and inheriting his fallen state and punishment as we would have inherited his gifts had he been obedient to God.¹⁰ This state in which we are born is called “original sin” because it is inherited by us through our origin or descent from Adam.¹¹

Mr. J. But does it seem just that the whole human race should be punished for the disobedience of Adam?

Father S. Yes, if you look at it in the right way. Original sin does not deprive us of anything to which we have a strict right as human beings, but only the free gifts which God in His generous goodness would have bestowed on us if Adam had not sinned. All God owes to the soul are its natural endowments, namely: immortality, free will, and understanding. The supernatural beautification of the soul by grace, the preservation of the body from death, sickness, evil inclinations of the body passions, etc., were gifts, which God was free to give or withhold; and He chose to withhold them from the posterity of our first parents, if Adam, the fountainhead of the human race, disobeyed. In that one act, mankind was on trial. We have inherited our human nature from Adam in its fallen state. Had Adam committed many other sins, we would not be affected thereby.

An example may help to clear this up. What if I, as your personal friend, of my own free will presented you with a large farm which would remain yours and go to your children on a certain condition? You do not fulfill this condition, and hence lose the farm. Your children are also deprived of the same. They cannot blame me, although they might well blame you. I did not owe the farm even to you. Its retention by you, and its transmission to your children, depended wholly on your compliance with my demand. By your refusal to comply with my terms, you forfeited the same for yourself and descendants.

Mr. J. But only our temporal and not our eternal welfare was affected by our parent’s sin.

Father S. No, our souls, being deprived of the supernatural beauty of grace, are not in a condition to enter a state of supernatural glory — not even the soul of a little child who has no personal sin, but has inherited “original sin.”

Mr. J. I never knew that Catholics taught “infant damnation.”

Father S. We do not. We do not believe that the soul of a child, who dies without the grace of God because unbaptized, will be consigned to positive punishment and suffering. In fact, we believe that it enjoys a happiness which far exceeds any natural happiness here — but it can be only a natural happiness, or a kind that fits the soul’s capacity. Of course, it falls far short of the happiness enjoyed by those who see God. If the soul was never elevated by grace to the supernatural condition, it cannot inherit supernatural happiness.

Mr. J. Well, how is it that grown-ups can fare better than children?

Father S. All grown-ups do not fare better than children, and most of them not as well. I stated that children, who die before their souls have original sin removed by the infusion of sanctifying grace, cannot enter into the blessed vision of God; neither could any adult. But God, in His goodness and mercy, has come to our rescue. Original sin can be removed, and the souls of both children and adults can receive the grace in which they would have been created had Adam not sinned.

In our next instruction we shall explain what God did to reinstate us in His friendship, and how we can be made capable and worthy of living the life of heaven.

Mr. J. Were Adam and Eve jointly responsible for original sin?

Father S. Both violated God’s command, but Adam alone, as head of the human race, is responsible for its transmission through the ages.