CHAPTER 4 ORIGINAL SIN: BREAKING THE COVENANT OF LIFE

CHAPTER 4 ORIGINAL SIN: BREAKING THE COVENANT OF LIFE

Living a life in the Grace of God is a life that is interdependent with God.

Creation Stories The Creation Stories end with a great harmony over Gods creation-it shows that all creation is good. Yet, when we look around us we see much evil. Evil cannot come from God. Where then does evil come from?

Original Sin Genesis is not simply a story about how life came into existence; it also explains the origin of sin, death, suffering, toil, divisions, and the universal tendency to do evil. Man failed God by making the wrong choice.

Original Sin Man failed God by making the wrong choice. He/She was disobedient to Gods order, maybe because he/she wanted to be like God. They refused to be what God meant them to be-His creatures who do not have any knowledge of good and evil.

Original Sin
By attempting to be more than creatures, they have refused to accept their creaturely status and their loving relationship with the Creator. This is the root of all sin. The universal human condition of sin is due to the misuse of freedom which leads us to breaking our loving relationship and covenant with God.

Original Sin
This lesson will help us deepen our understanding of original sin in relation to our everyday life. It will also provide us an opportunity to discern and identify the evil that gradually penetrates our human relationships. It also challenges us to be strong and steadfast in the Grace of God in order to shun and resist the presence of evil in the world.

Original Sin
Every

human commit mistakes. We are prone to committing sin because of our imperfections. The stories in Genesis 3 to 11 (fall of Adam and Eve, murder of Abel by Cain, Noah and the Great Flood, and the Tower of Babel), present the following:

The Fall of Adam and Eve

The Fall of Adam and Eve

Genesis

3: 1-24

This story leads us to understand that Original Sin is the tendency of the human person to sin against God due to the misuse of ones freedom. It is saying yes to the invitation to do less than what a person can do best, to respond to selfish and self-centered motives. This is also known as Concupiscence.

The Fall of Adam and Eve

Sin

committed:

The Fall of Adam and Eve

Sin

committed:

DISOBEDIENCE

The Fall of Adam and Eve

Sin

committed: (then and now):

DISOBEDIENCE

Effect

The Fall of Adam and Eve

Sin

committed: (then and now):

DISOBEDIENCE

Effect

THEY

WERE EXPELLED FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN (PARADISE)

CAIN and ABEL

The Murder of Abel by Cain

Genesis

4: 1-26 Sin committed:

MURDER

Effect

(then and now):

BECOMES A WANDERER

CAIN

NOAHS ARK

Noahs Ark
Genesis

6: 5-22; 7: 1-23 Sin committed:

WICKEDNESS

OF THE PEOPLE

Effect

(then and now):

DESTRUCTION

OF THE WHOLE WORLD THROUGH THE FLOOD

TOWER of BABEL

Tower of Babel
Genesis

11: 1-9 Sin committed:

PRIDE

Effect

(then and now):

OF LANGUAGE

CONFUSION

The Sin Stories Present the Following:

a. b.

c.

A history of human sinfulness; the passive presence of evil in the world, and a deep association to sin among contemporaries and succeeding generations

Original Sin
Both the Bible and the Church teach that sin and evil does not come from God who created everything good, but from the willful disobedience of the human person who abused the freedom that God had given them at the dawn of history.

Original Sin The loss of habitual grace or the deprivation of a right relationship with God and the incapacity to love Him above all things.
- St. Thomas Aquinas

Original Sin

Materially, it is concupiscence, or the rampage of unruly cravings which savages the freedom of the fallen and disrupts inner integrity and social harmony (Summa Theologiae)
-St. Thomas Aquinas

Original Sin (CFC 376) We do not literally inherit Adams personal sin, but rather the sinful condition in the world with our weakened human nature resulting from Adams sin.

Original Sin in our Contemporary Human Experience

Het, hattat Hebrew word for sin Harmartia, hamartema Greek word which literally means to miss the mark Pesha, pasha Hebrew word, which means an infringement, a sense of rebellion. In the biblical usage, it refers to the breaking of the covenant.

Original Sin in our Contemporary Human Experience Sin alienates us, separates us, and makes us strangers from our true selves (intrapersonal), our neighbor (inter-personal), the larger community (societal), and God.

Sin in the Old Testament

Sin is an act of disobedience and infidelity to the Will of God. It is a conscious choice of rebelling against God and transgressing Gods commandments.

Sins Deepest Nature

Sin is a refusal to respond to Gods initiative of love.

Sin in the New Testament, particularly the Gospels

Sin is a act of betrayal of love.

Even with the gifts entrusted to man, social conditions and external realities may still push the human person to sin.

ORIGINAL SIN
The

state in which we are born as member of the human race. We are thus situated in a sinful history that affects our capacity to love God above all, to become our true selves, and achieve our destiny. (CFC 383)

ORIGINAL SIN
It

can be referred to as originating sin which introduces evil and sinful situation into which we are born (sin of the world) with the inner effect of disordered desires (concupiscence) which we all experience within us.

CONCUPISCENCE
A

deep-seated disorder in every person that becomes the root cause of many of our personal sins.

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

Basic

inclinations or disvalues, which are the origin of many sinful thoughts, words or deeds. They manifest the evil tendencies within each of us.

PRIDE

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

1. Pride unreasonable desire for honor, distinction and independence. It is opposed to the virtue of humility.

ENVY

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

2. Envy discontent over the good of ones neighbor, which is detrimental to ones own person. It offends brotherliness and magnanimity.

LUST

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

3. Lust unreasonable craving for sexual gratification. It is against the virtue of chastity.

COVETOUSNESS/GREED

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

4. Covetousness unreasonable pursuit of material goods. It is contrary to the virtues of liberty and equity.

GLUTTONY

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

5. Gluttony excessive enjoyment of food and drink. It is opposite to the virtues of temperance and sobriety.

ANGER

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

6. Anger intemperate outburst of dislike with the desire for anothers punishment. It is contrary to patience and meekness.

SLOTH

CAPITAL OR ROOT SINS

7. Sloth in the wider sense, it refers to laziness whose opposite is diligence.

DIMENSIONS OF ORIGINAL SINS

The CFC gives emphasis to the following concepts in understanding Original Sin in relation to our contemporary human conditions (CFC 377380).

DIMENSIONS OF ORIGINAL SINS

1. SIN OF THE WORLD.

This is how original sin is described today. We are all born in a polluted atmosphere The social dimension of Original Sin is the sinful structures of injustices, oppressions, exploitations and other forms of inhumane actions.

DIMENSIONS OF ORIGINAL SINS

2. THE HEART OF DARKNESS WITHIN US

The personal, interior dimension of original sin The human person has inclination to sin due to concupiscence. Through Baptism we are redeemed in the grace of God and so we are called to wrestle with and manfully resist this situation and interior inclination to sin.

DIMENSIONS OF ORIGINAL SINS

3. PERSONAL SINS

The ratification of original sin by our personal sins. By our personal sins, we constitute part of the sin of the world and influence others to sin just as their personal sins are part of the sin of the world and influence others to sin just as their personal sins are part of the sin of the world for us.

EFFECTS OF SIN
We

have seen in our discussion that Original Sin is the persons inability to respond faithfully to the responsibility of sustaining the order and harmony of the relationship God designed and blessed.

EFFECTS OF SIN

It also highlighted the discontentment of the human person to accept his/her creature hood and his/her desire to be equal to God.

EFFECTS OF SIN

For this, man suffered the consequences brought by the sin committed, which broke the relationship, the covenant of life God established with him.

EFFECTS OF SIN 1. Sin causes an irrational and unfounded fear and shame.

2. Sin causes alienation.

3. Sin attacks the order of relationships

ORIGINAL SIN AND GRACE ADAM AND JESUS In Romans 5:12, it says: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and with sin death, death thus coming to all men inasmuch as all sinned.

ORIGINAL SIN AND GRACE ADAM AND EVE

Through

Adam, sin and death came into existence in the world. Through the grace of Christ, the Grace of Reconciliation, justification and superabundance in life can be attained.

LETS PRAY

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions and my sins are ever before me, Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in Your sight, so that I maybe justified in Your sentence and blameless in Your judgment.

Fill me with joy and gladness; hide Your Face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your Presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You. Deliver me from blood guiltiness.

O God, You are God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Your deliverance. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
Psalm 51:1-4, 8-15