It is the sin that all men carry at birth, inherited from our first parents, who distanced themselves from God by disobedience to his law. The inheritance belongs to all men, who are born already in a state of sinners. That initial sin was the reason why divine mercy determined the coming of the Savior who, with his death on the cross, redeemed us from him and gave us back the possibility of eternal salvation.
1. What is it and how is it.
Original sin is mysterious, for neither in its nature nor in its circumstances can it be known or understood. However, we know that it existed in the beginning and exists in every man by the same divine revelation. As we also know that Christ came to destroy that and all the sins of man; and we know it also by divine revelation.
What the Church teaches is that it is a sin committed by Adam; that because of him the entire human race, all men, lost divine grace, except for the Virgin Mary, who “for a unique and singular privilege, according to the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate, did not contract it; that with grace, we also lost other gifts that we had received, such as life without suffering and immortality; that God did not abandon sinful man, but promised him redemption; and that redemption was accomplished with the coming and death of Jesus.
The teaching of the Fathers and the Popes has always been clear. St. Augustine said: “The deliberate sin of the first man is the cause of original sin” (De nupt. et concup. 2.26. 43). The commentary of the Church was always based on Sacred Scripture, for example in the Letter to the Romans (5. 12) of St. Paul, where Adam is shown transmitting death with his sin.
In those teachings a triple aspect was always clear.
– Adam’s sin wounded the entire human race, it was not just a personal sin of the first parents. St. Paul wrote “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so death came to every man.” Men have to die for having been sinners, as the Scripture claims: Wis. 2.24: “Through the devil’s envy death entered the world.” (Gen. 2.17; 3. 19). We must remember the influence of the evil spirit in this sin.
St. Paul is the one who best expresses it: “Through a man came death and through one man came the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15. 21).
– Men are spiritually stained by that sin of Adam. We have lost the divine friendship at birth, not only the advantages, but the very essence of grace. We are born in the sin of death (mortal), although mysteriously we cannot explain or understand it: “because by one man’s disobedience many men were made sinners” (Rom. 5. 19). It is a sin of participation, not of commission. But the basic consequences, the fall from grace, are real, albeit spiritual and mysterious.
– God did not leave man sunk in sin but, from the first moment, promised him redemption. In a germinal way in the same Genesis the promise is related (Gn. 3.15). Then, progressively, that promise is renewed in what we call Salvation History, until the arrival of Jesus.
2. How to forgive.
Then we individually accept this salvation through Baptism, as a way to recover the state of grace, and through the sacraments of forgiveness in the subsequent sins that we may incur. But there is no doubt that men of all times have felt the need to ask the divinity for forgiveness for something bad that stalks or surrounds them and that many religions have spoken of the fear of not being forgiven.
The Church, from the beginning of its action on earth and basing itself on the Prophets and the teachings of the Apostles, spoke of original sin, of the redemption achieved by Christ and of the need for “each one of us to apply to ourselves what is lacking”. to the passion of Christ.” (Col.1.24).
The nature of original sin, although mysterious, was clearly and definitively explained in the Council of Trent as the loss of supernatural life, the death of the soul (Sess. V. can. II), and as “absence of justice or divine grace, stain contracted by each human being at the moment of his conception” (Sess. VI. chap. III).
The Council called divine grace “justice”, taking up the principle explained by Saint Augustine: “The deliberate sin of the first man is the cause of original sin”. This principle is later developed by Saint Anselm: “the sin of Adam was one thing, but the sin of children at birth is something else; the first was the cause, the second is the effect” (De conc. virg. 24).
St. Thomas makes it clear this way: “An individual can be considered either as an individual or as part of a whole, as a member of a society. Considered in this second way, an action can be one’s own, even if it has not been done by oneself or by one’s own will, but in the rest of society or in one’s head, just as a nation does something when its prince does it… (Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 12).
The multitude of men who receive their nature from Adam may be considered as a single community or a body…
If man, who owes Adam his privation of original justice, is considered a private person, such privation is not his “sin”, since sin is essentially voluntary. If we consider him a member of Adam’s family, as if all men were one, then his deprivation partakes of the nature of sin on account of his being voluntary, for such was Adam’s sin.” (From Bad, 4.1)
3. Educate before that sin
It is necessary to educate the Christian to be aware of this mystery and this human reality. He must give thanks to God for having been baptized or he must convert that gift of Baptism into permanent life that will keep him away from other sins. But he must know that his freedom is a divine gift deserved by Christ our redeemer
The catechesis of sin should not center on biblical facts, but on the mystery.
The fact of original sin is collected in the Bible in the form of a myth or symbolic language, adapted to the mentality of the first readers of Scripture (Gen. 3.1-24). It is evident that not a snake spoke, nor did God go down to walk in the park, nor was a tree forbidden, nor was the pain of childbirth a punishment or a sanction the sweat of work for daily bread.
In addition, one must know how to present the consequences of that sin:
– Death and suffering are the main one. They are the effect of having lost a gift of immortality and impassibility that God had given to the man whom he had placed in a “paradise of delights”.
– Concupiscence is another important one. It is man’s feeling that his instincts rebel against his intelligence and will, as he rebelled against God. That maladjustment, or rebellion of the lower appetite, transmitted from Adam to us, is an occasion of sin. The disorderly tendency is not sinful, but it inclines to sin. Justification returns grace, but does not remove concupiscence.
– The necessity of Baptism. God has willed that man should receive a sensible sign that grace gives him, Baptism. It is not enough that he wants to reject sin to be justified. He needs the sign that God has established.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
The origin of evil in human history is linked to a sin of “origin”, that of the first parents, Adam and Eve (cf. Gen 3). Biblical narratives, within their literary genre (wisdom), transmit truths of faith and point out both the universal reality of sin and the promises of universal redemption in Christ. “Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that all human history is marked by original sin freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).
If the first Adam was the source of sin for all humanity, the one after Adam, Christ the Redeemer, is the source of a more abundant grace of salvation. It is the parallelism pointed out by Saint Paul “Just as by the disobedience of one man all were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one man all will be made righteous… where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:19 ). On Easter night, when celebrating the redemption, they sing “Oh happy guilt that such and such a great Redeemer deserved!”.
The universality of inherited (“originated”) original sin, transmitted by generation or propagation (to all humanity and to each one), finds its effective solution in the universal redemption of Christ. The consequences of that sin were mainly the loss of divine life (grace), the disorder of human nature inclined to evil (although maintaining freedom) and death. Adam had received “justice” or divine life (along with other special gifts of integrity and immortality) not only for himself, but also for his descendants. Human nature was not totally corrupted, but rather lost the special gifts that he had been given and was weakened.
The sin committed by the first parents “is (in them) a personal sin, but this sin affects human nature, which they will transmit in a fallen state” (CEC 404; cf. Trento, sess. 5ª, DS 1511-1512). Our inherited original sin (at the first moment of our human conception) “is a sin ‘contracted’, ‘not committed’, a state and not an act” (CCC 404). In the first moment of our existence, we did not have the sanctifying grace that God wanted for every human being. Mary, the Immaculate, is an exception, “in anticipation of the merits of her Son” (LG 53).
By baptism original sin is erased in us and the grace of Christ is received. The first Adam was also later granted this grace, but already as a fruit of redemption. God has ways unknown to us, to communicate this same grace to all redeemed men. The mission is the announcement of this salvation in Christ and of the means that he has established in his Church, especially baptism, which is a gift and a call for all peoples. The world has been saved from sin by the redemption of Christ, the only Savior.
References Baptism, grace, Immaculate, limbo, sin, redemption.
Reading of GS 13 documents; CEC 385-421.
Bibliography H. HAAG, The original sin in the Bible and in the doctrine of the Church (Madrid, FAX, 1969); M. FLICK, Z. ALSZEGHY, Man under the Sign of Sin. Theology of original sin (Salamanca, Follow me, 1972); P. GRELOT, The problem of original sin (Barcelona, Herder, 1970); LF LADARIA, Theology of original sin and grace (BAC, Madrid, 1993)
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization
1. The data of faith.- The explicit texts of Sacred Scripture that refer to the reality of sin…