On Original Sin

The LORD God then called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself."

Genesis 3: 9-10

"O faded Eden, where divine innocence fled, our native freedoms enslaved by the knowledge of good and evil!"
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Remember the life of our first parents, Adam and Eve? It was through their first choice that we have all inherited our brokenness which is the consequence of a wrong choice, our original sin.

I am sure that were our Father Adam and our Mother Eve fully cognizant of the lasting consequence of that particular choice, they would gladly do all that's in their power to make it right for us, their beloved children. But it was not in their power to prevent time from taking place.

It is the mandate of Almighty God to save our fallen humanity because of this wrong choice because original sin justifies our common need for a Savior and our most loving Jesus accomplished this for all of mankind. Satan and his fallen angels do not share with our humanity this special privilege with for they have all sinned by first principle truth. In contrast, we are all victims by first principle truth for it is exactly because of Satan's one lie that we all fell with our first parents into an abyss of suffering and death.

Now, original sin justifies the mission of Christ but His infinite love for us perfected it. From original sin arise the ground upon which the seven capital vices may take it's root in our souls. From these capital vices arise diverse kinds of evil which lead to actual sin and sin that brings everlasting death to the everlasting soul of man. Recall what God asked our father Adam after his eyes were opened and his innocence with God lost, "where are you?" Where indeed, is our proper place within our one common Creator's creation?

The nakedness felt by our first parents indicates both shame and guilt at the loss of their native communion with our Creator Who before their sin had continually clothed them with His sanctifying grace. Thus, they hid themselves because they realized they were naked. This nakedness is a manifest vulnerability that we all express as human beings by our common lack as there is much sin that brings forth so much uncertainty into our poor world. For we are never certain without faith and the only faith that is certain is faith in Almighty God and His saving grace that clothes us against sin.

Our Blessed Savior and Lord desired not only to pay the terrible ransom for our actual sins, He also desires that we participate in His saving work and to fill up what is lacking in His suffering by our labors to rid ourselves of our own brokenness from within, in, through and with Him for the glory of the one Triune Perfection in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, our Most Holy Trinity. For Jesus Christ did not intend to eliminate our human responsibilities, He intended to liberate them that we may become more and more like our true selves from faded Eden. By His enabling Sacrifice, Christ did not intend to eliminate our choices, He intended to empower them and as our good God has always done down the generations of our spiritual patrimony in Him, He instituted an eternal and holy remembrance of His saving action for our forgetful yet needful mankind in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Recall that our Blessed Lord could have come down to us in many other ways, He could have saved us without the Cross, but Jesus Christ has intended from eternity with His Father that He will bring us all back Home with Him, that He will not only restore us to our glorified natures and original habitations at the end of exile time but He will also share His own life and His own Father with us through the Holy Spirit as one great Covenant family of God. This is the the exquisite felicity of the Beatific Vision; our love at one with the infinite Love of the eternal God of everlasting life. For this is eternal life; to be caught up in the Holy Spirit between the intimate embrace of the Father and the Son.

Let us be mindful that every act, every word, every miracle and every event in our Savior's life was intended in eternity by the Wisdom of God to bring out the best spiritual advantage for our sake. This is why we should meditate as much as possible on the life of our Lord in the Gospels for there is no end to the meaningful discoveries we will make.

By the mystery of His Incarnation and it's fullness, our Lord brought upon our world the sword that sundered our hearts, once filled with so much uncertainty, that we may know Light from darkness, that we may come to a knowledge of the certitude of God's truth.

The Incarnate Word liberates us from evil not by vanquishing evil for us but by destroying evil's death grip on our souls, that we may begin to recognize Him, that we may realize the depths of His unfathomable love for us and by doing so creates for us another choice, another way.

If we do not fully understand original sin, we will also likewise fail to fully comprehend the unique significance of our being Christian because it is precisely original sin that our Savior intended to vanquish by His holy Passion and Cross. Our Savior intended to strike at the very root of evil and sever the bonds that make us slaves to forces within our selves. For the forgiveness of our actual sins depends on our humble and contrite admission not only of our actual sins but also of our own brokenness from within and, thus our manifest need for Christ, our Savior. Our Savior in Jesus Christ continually thirsts for our love. He thirsts upon His Holy Cross not for water for no water may quench His thirst for our love.

Thus, contrition for actual sin does not require us to be overly anxious for God's mercy for our God is a God of mercy, for God desires that all may be saved and liberated from every evil. Where there is evil in our world, it is not for lack of the good, it is for lack of appreciation and love of the good, because the heart of man knoweth now what is good and what is evil and so comprehends nothing but darkness.

Our deepening sense of contrition begins to grow from our quiet, humble and contrite realization that we are but human and though we do err into sin, all things are possible with God Whom we so desperately need but have so gravely offended by our numberless sins. Our acts of penance and contrition for our sins should impart into our souls, a growing Christian understanding of our true selves in relation to God and to others in God. For penance itself is a virtue and all that is virtue is meant to serve others on our God's behalf. Therefore, penance that begins from within the self must eventually move toward an other-centered orientation for only then can it fulfill it's true promise and bear the fruits of our repentance in Jesus Christ, our Lord, the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Remember when our good Lord gave to us His peace? Our Lord Jesus Christ has a generosity that is proper to God and so we should now know that His promises are always unimaginably more than what He leads us to believe.

When our Savior gave to us His peace, He shared with us His joy and He became for us our hope and our sacred Christian trust. Recall also that in the Gospels, our Lord shared to us His peace not in private but in public. I have put much prayerful thought into this and have become precisely convinced that this is because His peace is a promise that He intends for us to share with the rest of the world on His behalf as our common Christian obligation. For His peace is a promise of better things to come in time and in eternity not only for us Christians but for all the good people of our world. It is a promise made to those that believe in their heart of hearts that all will be well, verily, verily, all will be well, not because we are good or because we do much good things but because our God is good.

And we shall do this not with a loud conquering hubris that is empty like the slow rumbling thunder but in profound witness of His truth that in the stillness of night is swift like winged lightning.

Thus, when God calls out to us in our hearts to ask us where we are, as He did ask our Father Adam, we shall say:

WE ARE HERE, O most merciful and loving Lord!
Thou art our one, true and everliving God,
speak Thy noble truth and our souls will quicken to Thee,
command us and we shall obey,
beckon us into Thy Light and bless us that we may follow into Thee,
pray speak to us of Thy holy will of salvation,
forgive us our offenses against Thee as we forgive others who offend against us,
cleanse us from every stain of sin, O Lord,
and deliver us from everlasting death,
and may our poor world come to a knowledge of Thy infinite love and Thy endless mercy,
reconcile us to Thy saving grace and permit us never again to turn away from Thee.

AMEN.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.