Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
Man's first sin
397 Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his
freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.
278
All subsequent sin
would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.
398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself
over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his
own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in
glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in
accordance with God".
279
399 Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve
immediately lose the grace of original holiness.
280
They become afraid of the God of whom they
have conceived a distorted image - that of a God jealous of his prerogatives.
281
400 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.
282
Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to
man.
283
Because of man, creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay".
284
Finally, the
consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will "return to the
ground",
285
for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.
286
401 After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated by sin There is Cain's murder of his brother
Abel and the universal corruption which follows in the wake of sin. Likewise, sin frequently
manifests itself in the history of Israel, especially as infidelity to the God of the Covenant and as
transgression of the Law of Moses. And even after Christ's atonement, sin raises its head in
countless ways among Christians.
287
Scripture and the Church's Tradition continually recall the
presence and universality of sin in man's history:
What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man
looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many
evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his
source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end, and at
the same time he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as
between himself and other men and all creatures.
288
The consequences of Adam's sin for humanity
402 All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul affirms: "By one man's disobedience many
(that is, all men) were made sinners": "sin came into the world through one man and death through
sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned."
289
The Apostle contrasts the
universality of sin and death with the universality of salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's
trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and
life for all men."
290
403 Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which
oppresses men and their inclination towards evil and death cannot be understood apart from their
connection with 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".
291
Because of this certainty of faith, the Church
baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin.
292
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