Death enters the world due to sin. Regardless of whether there was spontaneous creation or development of species as through evolution, the Church teaches that death enters the world because of sin. Had Adam and Eve remained faithful, our first parents would either have never known death or it would have been as merely opening a door and walking from one room to another. Human rebellion would cost us preternatural gifts and usher forth suffering, sickness and dying. It is a crucial hallmark of Christian anthropology, that these dark mysteries are not the result of the divine active will, but rather of his passive will— God makes space for the misuse of human freedom. While he does not preserve us from the consequences of sin, he does not forget us and makes a promise of redemption.
After the fall, our first parents hide themselves in shame of their nakedness. They forfeit their profound union with God. An awareness that raised them ahead of all other creatures of material creation was accompanied by a duty or responsibility to honor the Almighty. However, their love and fidelity fall short. Eve falls to the serpent and Adam is emasculated in complying with the demand of Eve. They would remain stewards of creation but as deeply flawed sentinels in a now broken world. The sin of our first parents brings about a woundedness to all creation. The bridge collapses between heaven and earth. It would only be in Christ our “pontifex” that the bridge would be restored, albeit in the form of a cross. While hope remains, our pilgrimage would henceforth include struggle and suffering. The actions of Adam and Eve do not mean merely death to a few but death to many. As in any mortal sin, they are stripped of sanctifying grace. This is still how we enter the world and why faith and baptism are so essential. Another lesson learned is that just as the cost of original sin is passed down to every child of humanity save Mary; all sin, even the most personal and hidden, touches others because we then cannot witness as the saints we should be. Indeed, one of the imperatives for the sacrament of penance is that we might be healed as members of the mystical body, the Church. The sin of any one of us is a cause of diminishment for all. We are called not simply as individuals but as a new People of God or New Israel.
Compounding the gravity of Adam and Eve’s rebellion is that within their intense intimacy with God comes a heightened awareness of intellect, sometimes referred to as infused science. Not only have we lost this supernatural gift, but today many seem to possess only a vague appreciation of human nature and our true place in the world. Consciences are numbed to the truth about the sanctity of human life and the dignity of persons— divine light is displaced by a satanic darkness. Every school kid is aware of this loss because learning often does not come quickly and requires constant study and repetition to store information in memory. What should be easy becomes difficult or arduous.
Original sin also strips away our sense of integrity, making us capricious and prone to the urging of concupiscence. It is hard to do the good and easy to do the bad. The symphony of harmony in us and in creation is disrupted. The fruitful blessings of the garden would be traded for the struggle of the arid wastes— men would toil for their food and women would know the pains of childbirth.
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