Q. When God creates our soul, I know why we have the stain of original sin, but how does that get imprinted on our souls?
A. It has been said that the doctrine of original sin is the one belief of the Church that does not need to be proven, because the evidence is all around us. Certainly, the wounded nature of humanity is abundantly clear, not just as we look around our world, but when we reflect on our own lives and wonder as St. Paul did, why I do not do the good I want to do, but instead the evil I do not want to do?
While we know original sin is real, as seen through the effect it has on our lives, the question remains: how exactly do we “inherit” its effects? Well, that is one of those elements of our Faith that we just do not have all the answers about. “The transmission of original sin is a mystery we cannot fully understand” (CCC 404).
But just because we do not have all the answers does not mean we do not have any answers.
To better understand original sin, we need to consider briefly what sin is. Sin is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as an act not in accord with reason informed by the Divine law. It is a moral evil. Evil, again as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas, is the lack of some good that should be present. It is a privation rather than a thing itself. Sin is choosing a lesser perceived good over the Good of God and therefore, a sinful act is an act that lacks some moral good that should be present.
With regards to the “sin” part of original sin, it is a sin only in an analogous sense. The Church does not claim that every person born is somehow personally responsible for original sin. “Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants” (CCC 405). It was a personal sin for Adam and Eve, but not for every human being since.
The reason we use “sin” to refer to original sin is because it speaks to the aspect of sin being the lack of some good that was supposed to be present. When Adam and Eve were created, they existed in a pre-fallen world and their human nature was intact. When they sinned, human nature was wounded “in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin – an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence” (ibid.). The good in human nature that was supposed to be from the beginning was diminished, though not entirely lost.
Original sin, then, is transmitted by the fact that all humanity after Adam and Eve inherit a “human nature deprived of original holiness and justice.” 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” (CCC 404). All humans born after Adam and Eve share in the fallen human nature that resulted from their sin. How exactly that works is where the mystery part of this comes in.
Before we get too upset, though, about the fact that our human nature is wounded through no fault of our own, we need to remember that our human nature is also redeemed through no work of our own. Just as Adam and Eve’s sin affected all of humanity, Christ’s redemptive act of taking on our human nature and dying for our sins and rising to new life also affected all of humanity. We now share in the possibility of salvation and, in fact, enjoy a more profound relationship with God than even Adam and Eve, who may have “walked” with God but never received the Eucharist.
God brings the greatest good out of the greatest evil. It is for this reason that the Exsultet, the great hymn of the Easter Vigil, reflecting on the Fall, says this:
“O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
