The mystery of suffering, Part Two

Tonight, we continue with our series on the reality of human suffering.    In the last post, we discussed what Revelation reveals about the source of evil, how that source of evil is sin, and what sin is.   In this post, we will discuss a more specific doctrine related to sin and suffering.

In the last post, we read the account in Genesis 3 of the sin of our first parents.   This is what is commonly referred to as the original sin.   The term “original sin” can refer to both that original sin of our first parents, that first act of disobedience, the first “abuse of freedom” which is at the crux of all sin.   However, the term is used also to define the consequence of that first sin, the hereditary sin which we are born with on account of our descent from Adam and Eve.  

The consequences of that first sin were devastating.   We read these sobering words from the Catechism (#400) exactly what happened as a result of that one sin:  The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul's spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay". Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "return to the ground" for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.

Wow, that is a lot!  One sin and unity, harmony, and life are replaced by disunity, unrest, and death. (How troubled then should we by our many sins?)

Like the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of original sin is not something we can fully understand.  We cannot fully explain how the sin of our first parents long ago still affects us today.   The Catechism tries its best to shed some light in #404:

How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man". By this "unity of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not an act.

We need to make clear what original sin is and what is not.   Original sin does not say that we bear responsibility for what Adam and Eve did.   We simply ear the effects of what they did.   Their sin, as stated in the last paragraph, affected human nature.  It makes our nature wounded.   It makes it subject to, in the words of the Catechism (#405)  ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called "concupiscence".

And there we have it.  This is where suffering comes in.   Suffering comes from sin, and it specifically comes as a result of original sin.   Original sin is the best explanation for why the world is at it is, and why we struggle internally as we do.  Looking at ourselves, we ask:  Why do we give in to vice?  Why do we do things we do not want to do?   Why am I not the best I can be?  Why will I die?  The ultimate answer to all these questions is original sin.  Original sin is the reason our nature is wounded, why it is like it is.   

Then, we look outside ourselves, and look at the world, and we ask:  Why is there war?  Why is there injustice?   Why do people die?   The ultimate answer to all these questions, too, is original sin.  That is why things in the world are as they are.  The Catechism (#407) says the following regarding this doctrine, and the condition of the world: The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man's situation and activity in the world. By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free. Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil". Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals.

There are two major heresies the Church has had to deal with regarding this doctrine of original sin.  The first was from the Pelagians in the first few hundred years of the Church who said that the effect of original sin is the bad example of Adam and Eve, not some condition we inherit from them.  Scripture makes clear, however, that the sin of Adam and Eve was much more powerful and influential than merely being a bad example to follow:  Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law.  Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14)   Mere Imitation of Adam is not the cause of sin and suffering; our wounded human nature, caused by the condition we inherited from Adam, is.

The second heresy came about in the Protestant Reformation which says original sin destroys man’s freedom.   Catholic teaching, however, holds that our natural faculties are not destroyed by original sin; we still have minds, hearts, and wills, and therefore, we still have freedom.   These faculties are wounded, not destroyed.  What is gone, however, is sanctifying grace, and this is what original sin is, the privation of sanctifying grace.   We discussed sanctifying grace in our post on grace a little while back.  http://jimscatholicblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/grace-its-meaning-and-two-types.html

The way to get this grace back, as we have discussed before, is through the Sacraments, starting with Baptism.   We read in the Catechism (#405)  Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.  There is a way out from underneath the effects of original sin, that is the good news.  However, to receive this good news, we must acknowledge the reality of sin in the first place.

There is one final question that is mentioned in the very last paragraph in this section of the Catechism on original sin.  Why did God not prevent our first parents from sinning?  To sum it up, he allowed it for a greater good.   We read in #412:  St. Leo the Great responds, "Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away." And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, 'Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more'; and the Exsultet sings, 'O happy fault,. . . which gained for us so great a Redeemer!'"

This, I think, in addition to being the key to understanding the allowance of original sin, is also key to understanding why suffering is allowed to exist, to bring about a greater good.  We will discuss this a little bit more in an upcoming post.

Before that, however, in the next post in this series, we will discuss the devil’s role in fostering sin and suffering.

Joseph, mirror of patience, pray for us.