By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 27
There are many people today, even among churchgoing Catholics, who deny the biblical and patristic doctrine of original sin, or at least cast doubt over it. They do not realize that, without the concept of original sin, the redemption brought about by Jesus Christ would be meaningless. Of course, if there were no original sin, there would be nothing to redeem us from, and Jesus Christ would have died in vain, or more precisely, His redemption would have been nonsensical.
Consequence: The whole of Christianity would be a myth, a make-believe story, or perhaps even a sad joke.
We cannot have it both ways: We cannot be Christians if we deny the reality of original sin.
We have seen that, in spite of being a mystery, the doctrine of original sin is reasonable. How else can one explain the permanent imperfections and evils of this world and human life? It is clear that something went wrong in the beginning, and even people without any knowledge of Sacred Scripture and divine Revelation have come up with attempts to explain the presence of evil and imperfection in the world.
More: The very word religion contains the idea of original sin, for the word re-ligion comes from re-ligare, to link again, that by which one seeks to be linked again to the divine. You don’t have to be an anthropologist to realize that all religions represent man’s quest for reunion with God, in one way or another. In fact, even some of the pagan religions may contain elements of that primitive Revelation given to Adam.
The doctrine of original sin is in conformity with human experience: Our own personal and communal experience testify to the reality of original sin. For instance:
The traditions of ancient peoples relate a primordial tragedy and a Paradise Lost: for example, Pandora’s box, Elysium, and the Golden Age. It would be difficult to explain how different peoples living in different times and places have produced stories with the same basic meaning — that is, something went wrong in the beginning and people need to do something about it to achieve happiness.
And, until recently, before the pornography business, the homosexual lobby, and the abortion industry had thoroughly corrupted a large segment of mankind, there was a certain the sense of shame attached to the urges and requirements of man’s bodily nature.
Above all, we know that in our human nature there is an inescapable awareness of a propensity to evil even in the face of clear knowledge of what is right. We Catholics know it too well when we go to Confession. There are certain things we know to be wrong, and yet we give in to the inclination to do them; or conversely, there are things we know to be good, but we give in to other inclinations not to do them. That’s when we know we have sinned, and realize our imperfection.
The practical consequence of accepting the doctrine of original sin is that we can understand why the world is marred by so much wickedness and unhappiness. God’s purpose in creating mankind was frustrated by Adam’s sin. Consequently, we are burdened with a fallen — not perfect — human nature, and we are at odds with ourselves and the surroundings in which we live.
Within ourselves, we feel the strong pull of evil passions, to lose our temper, to commit adultery or fornication, to lie, to overeat or to drink in excess, to be lazy — the whole nine yards! That is human nature, and we struggle to fight those adverse tendencies even though they are appealing to our lower nature.
In the Hail, Holy Queen prayer, we speak of a “vale of tears.” And we know that quite a few times in our lives, we do indeed experience a “vale of tears.” From a toothache to a car accident, from a misbehaving teenager to a divorce, from the diagnosis of cancer to some family member who has lost the faith, yes, we have to bear much sorrow and suffering. Such is our unhappy lot.
But God enables us to turn to profit these very consequences of original guilt. He gives us the grace to battle against temptation, and to win a reward all the greater in proportion to the severity of the struggle.
God uses pain and sorrow to open our hearts to tenderness and sympathy, to teach us that this world offers us no lasting happiness, and to make us look with the eyes of hope to our true home where He “will wipe away every tear…and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain” (Apoc. 21:4).
Pain is indeed a cruel discipline that He would have spared us, but, under His loving Providence, it has become like the plant whose root is bitter, but whose fruit is sweet.
We concentrate so much on the miseries of this life that very seldom, if ever, do we consider the possibility of what might have happened if Adam had not sinned. It is important to emphasize that original sin is a truth revealed to us by God that we cannot comprehend in full. It is parallel to the other truth, equally mysterious, that if Adam had not sinned, he would have transmitted to all his posterity the divine gift of sanctifying grace.
Yes, if Adam had not sinned, not only he and his family would have enjoyed unparalleled happiness in Eden and in the world outside of it, but also he would have transmitted his state of perfection to his descendants, and certainly the great gifts with which God had endowed his nature. Good health, joy, and an abundance of material things that make life enjoyable; immortality. His children would be born but not destined to die.
Their lives would be a continuous crescendo in knowledge, love, and service of God, so that when they would have reached the fullness of their age and time on Earth, they would have been assumed into Heaven, body and soul, without knowing death.
They would have built a civilization of unimaginable grandeur, with an immeasurable knowledge of science, astronomy, biology, and would very probably developed the forces of nature to explore the universe — why not?
But we have been redeemed by the sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ and He founded His Church to guide us toward the limited perfection that is achievable in this life, if we are obedient to His Law. A big “if” indeed. The current crisis of faith inside the Church, the lack of zeal among bishops and priests, the widespread ignorance of Catholicism among the laity are elements of unhappiness and spiritual death for a great many.
Next article: answering objections to the doctrine of original sin.
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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