If we think about Christian morality in terms of rules and laws, we think about it incorrectly. Christian morality’s key term is “restoration.” Christ came to restore us, to heal us, and to raise us to a new level.
Thus original sin is one of the cornerstone doctrines of Catholic morality. If we don’t believe we’ve been infected by sin’s poison, then it’s hard, if not impossible, to believe we need healing and restoration.
So what is original sin?
When God created our first parents, he gave them blessings on three levels. He gave them the supernatural blessing of sanctifying grace, or friendship with Himself; he gave them the preternatural (or superhuman) blessings of integrity and immortality; and he gave them the natural blessings of an enlightened intellect and strong will. These were gifts from God, grace he gave them.
We call Adam and Eve’s sin a fall. What did they fall from? They fell from God’s grace. They lost the gifts God had given them: intimate friendship with him, integrity, immortality, an enlightened intellect, and a strong will. They were left with un-graced human nature — powerless to know, love, and serve God.
Through baptism, we are cleansed from the stain of original sin. Sanctifying grace is restored to our souls; we are given faith, hope, and love — the virtues necessary to know and seek God with our whole being. We are even given the seed of eternal life, as Scripture calls it, which will fully blossom in the age to come. Integrity is not restored. What’s integrity?
Integrity is the word the Church uses to speak of the harmony between our mind and our bodies, between our reason and our passions. Adam and Eve enjoyed possessed integrity. If they wanted to fast, their bodies did not revolt and crave food.
We, on the other hand, have a lack of integrity. Our intellects and bodies are at odds with one another. My mind says, “Time to pray,” and my body says, “Time to sleep.” My reason says, “Be chaste,” but my passions says, “Look at her legs!”
Why did God not restore our integrity?
For two reasons, I think. First, because he wants us to be humble — he wants us to remember that we are creatures dependent upon his goodness, mercy, and love. If we didn’t have to wage this moral war, we’d quickly forget about him.
The second reason flows from the first. In his infinite wisdom, just as God made the Christ’s the source of salvation, he made our lack of integrity our road to holiness. “You cannot be my disciple,” Jesus tells us, “unless you pick up your cross.” What is our cross? Ourselves — our faults, our failings, our weaknesses. These are the things we must fight — daily, weekly, monthly, yearly — with great patience.
We can’t do follow this road without God’s grace. We receive his grace through the sacraments, which give us the spiritual strength to wage the Christian battle, but we still have to fight. God gives us the power to act, but we must act. It is difficult to act if we don’t know how to act. It’s like giving a man a car without teaching him how to use it.
This is where the Church’s moral teachings fit into the spiritual life. They tell us how to act, and thereby tell us which battles we need to wage. The moral teachings are a standard of living — a standard that raises us up to God. This is why the Catechism begins its section on morality with the following:
Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God (no. 1691).
Thus the Church’s moral teachings don’t give us an abstract ethic rooted in idealist “oughts” and “ought nots.” Nor is the Church’s moral teaching “traditional” in the sense that it’s the collective human wisdom from which we should not deviate.
No, the Church’s moral teachings tell us what it means to become like God. Through his passion and death, Christ restored us; he healed us; he saved us. Through baptism and the other sacraments, these realities were and are communicated to us. The Church’s morality teaches us how to preserve the great gift we’ve been given. It teaches us how to live according to the dignity of God’s children.
Tags: Baptism, Original Sin
