By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 26
In a previous article I mentioned some of the amazing gifts that God granted to mankind through our first parents. If they had not messed up the works, we would have inherited those gifts. Among them, the most important gift they lost was none other than sanctifying grace.
Yes, sanctifying grace, whereby they shared in God’s life. It was the most important gift, even over and above immortality, because they enjoyed God’s presence in their very own beings: It was the beginning of their future life of happiness in Heaven.
Each one of their children inherited that loss, that deprivation of sanctifying grace, except our Lady. By means of a very special privilege, which the Church calls the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb without the stain of original sin. It means that her human nature was like the human nature of Mother Eve at her creation, sinless and perfect.
Original sin stained human nature very badly, to the extent that we inherit a mark of the Devil’s presence in ourselves. That explains why in the former ritual of Baptism the priest would exorcise the baby he was baptizing. Yes, he exorcized the baby, to expel that mark of the Devil inherited from the parents. This simple fact gives us another idea of the seriousness of original sin, which marked human nature with a seal — or “the DNA” — of the Tempter.
Of course, it is not an actual sin because the baby is innocent of actual sins, but it is an inheritance from the parents, who inherited from all the way back to Adam and Eve. Babies are born and begin their lives in a condition, in a state, brought about by the sin of Adam, and in a manner contrary to the will of God. God did not want it to be so, but Adam made it so by disobeying God and obeying the Devil.
But how does it happen, how is the sin of Adam transmitted to us? That is a natural question that occurs to many people. Even though sin is a reality in the soul, original sin is not transmitted to us by our souls, and this for the very simple reason that our souls are directly created by God at the moment of conception in our mothers’ womb.
In fact, in recent years, scientists have made an amazing discovery: At the moment of conception, when the chromosomes combine together, a spark of light occurs, indicating the formation of a new human being! A spark of light! Could that be the moment when God created the soul, one wonders? In any event, it is a marvelous discovery, which reminds us of the very first thing God created in the universe: light! In the very beginning of creation, before all starts, comets and galaxies, God said: “Fiat lux” — “Let there be light.” And light appeared. It was the beginning of the universe.
Likewise, at the beginning of a new human life, and since human beings are the apex of creation, the summit of God’s creatures, God starts their existence with the same sign: light.
So, since our souls are directly created by God at the moment of conception, they are created pure, sinless, perfect. Therefore, original sin is transmitted to us by our bodies, by the chromosomes, by the material elements inherited from Adam. We do not know exactly how that works, but we do know that it works. It is enough to examine ourselves, how our bodies have inclinations that go against our minds. We inherited Adam’s rebellious flesh, whose inclinations went out of control when he sinned.
That explains the lament of St. Paul, when he said: “But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:23-24). He knew full well the corruption of human nature, which he inherited himself.
Let us take another look into this matter: Our soul did not exist before our conception. It sprang into existence only in the precise instant of its union with the contaminated bodily element. That is, when that spark of light occurred — if we assume that it is the moment when the soul is created — it is created perfect, but is immediately contaminated with the elements of death brought about by the material element, the body.
However microscopic it may be, it makes no difference, it is the material that the body will grow from. Therefore, the entire living man, soul and body, produced by that union was therefore, from the very first, in a condition not intended by God.
The Mystery
You may ask me if the doctrine of original sin is a mystery. Yes, it is. And we know that we inherited something wrong in our nature, by the simple realization that, in spite of all of our good intentions, in one time or another we are plagued by the capital sins.
We are tempted by pride, or lust, or anger, or gluttony, or usury, or envy, or sloth. One may be tempted by this capital sin, while his brother will be tempted by another, and the next-door neighbor is tempted by a different one. And this happens in spite of everyone’s good intentions.
The answer to the question is, yes, original sin is a mystery, even though we feel its effects. And the main feature in this miserable inheritance is that we are born in such a condition that without help from God, we are incapable of reaching the supernatural end for which God created us, to which God calls all men in Adam, and without which they cannot attain their fullest happiness. That is the mystery.
Next article: More consequences 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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