THE FALL of MAN

Where does evil come from?

“I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution.” St. Augustine

Profound relationship of man to God– humanity’s rejection of God– opposition to God– continuance despite the cost

THE FALL of MANAn Abuse of Free Will

Sin is not• a developmental flaw• psychological weakness• mistake• necessary consequence

Sin isan abuse of the Freedom

God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving Him

and one another

THE FALL of MANAdore Only God

“Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion.

To adore God is to acknowledge him as God,

as Creator and Savior,

the Lord and Master of everything that exists,

as infinite and merciful Love.

“You shall worship the Lord your god, and him only shall you serve, “

says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy.”

Catechism 2096

THE FALL of MANAdore Only God

God’s attributes are countless. He is:

• Holy (1 Pt. 1:15-16)

• Faithful (Ps 145:18)

• Immutable (Heb 1:10-12,13:8)

• Omniscient (all knowing) (1 Jn 3:20)

• Omnipresent (everywhere) (Ps 129:7-12)

• Omnipotent (all powerful) (Jer 32:17, 27)

God’s essence, his nature, is:

• Spirit (Jn 4:24)

• One (Dt 6:4)

• Triune (Trinitarian) (2 Cor 13:13)

THE FALL of MANFirst Understand Revelation

• By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man.

• He has thus provided the definitive answer to the questions man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of life.

• God has revealed himself to man by gradually communicating his own mystery in deeds and words.

THE FALL of MANFirst Understand

Revelation

Beyond the witness to himself that God gives in created

things, he manifested himself to our first parents, spoke to

them and, after the fall, promised them salvation

(Gen 3:15) and offered them his covenant.

God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and with all living beings (Gen. 9:16). It will remain in force as long

as the world lasts.

God chose Abraham

and made

a covenant with him and his

descendants.

By the covenant God formed his people

and revealed his law to them through

Moses.

Through the prophets,

he prepared them

to accept the salvation destined for all

humanity.

THE FALL of MANFirst Understand Revelation

God has revealed himself fully by

sending his own Son,

in whom he established his

covenant for ever.

The Son is his Father’s definitive

Word;

so there will be no further Revelation

after him.

THE FALL of MANUnderstand God’s Plan for Man

• You formed man in your own likeness• set him over the whole world to serve you,

his creator, and to rule over all creatures• Man is predestined to reproduce the

image of God’s Son.• Man though made of body and soul is a

unity.• God did not create man a solitary being.

From the beginning male and female he created them.

• Revelation makes known to us our relationship with God before there was sin.

THE FALL of MANThe Fall of Angels

Origin of the Seductive VoiceFree choice of some created spirits to radically and

irrevocably reject God and his reign.It is by choice that the angels’ sin is unforgivable not

because of a defect in infinite divine mercy.There is no desire to repent.

Satan’s power is not infinite. He to is a creature of God.

THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

Freedom put to the testTempted,

trust in God died in Man’s heart, Abusing his freedom he disobeyed

God’s command.

All sin revolves around disobedience toward God

and lack of trust.Man preferred himself to

God and by that act scorned Him.

He wanted to be like God, but without God, before God, and

not in accordance with God.

THE FALL of MAN

Original Sin

Results

• Lose the grace of original holiness

• Become afraid of God• The soul loses spiritual

control over the body• The union of man and

woman become subject to tension

• Relations are marked by lust and domination

• Harmony with creation is broken

• Death makes its entrance into human history

• Sin and corruption spread– Even after Christ’s

atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians.

THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

Consequences for Humanity

All men are implicated in Adam’s sin

For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn toward what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come

from his good creator.

THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

Consequences for HumanityThe Church teaches that the overwhelming misery which

oppresses men and their inclination toward

evil and death cannot be understood apart

from their connection to Adam’s sin

and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with

which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the death of the

soul.

THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

Transmission of original sin is a mystery we can not fully understand.

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 transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice.

That is why original sin is called sin only in a analogical sense: it is a sin “contracted” and not “committed”

- a state and not an act.

THE FALL of MANOriginal Sin

A Flaw in Nature (essence)– Nature - that which makes

something to be the sort of thing it is, to operate the way it does and to seek the good that is its own.

– Man’s nature is wounded in the natural powers proper to it.

– It is subject to ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of death; and inclined to sin (concupiscence)

THE FALL of MANBaptism and Grace

Baptism, by imparting the life of

Christ’s grace, erases original sin

and turns a man back toward God,

but the consequences for nature,

weakened and inclined to evil, still persist in man and

summon him to spiritual battle.

You Did Not Abandon Him to

the Power of DeathThe announcement of the Messiah and Mary.

(Gen 3:15)