United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

Chapter 6. Man and Woman in the Beginning • 71

FROM THE CATECHISM

UNDERSTANDING SIN In recent times the comment frequently arises, What’s happened to sin? Where has sin gone? There is a perceptible discomfort in our culture with the notion of sin as an evil for which we must give an account to God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Judge. This tendency applies not just to everyday evil acts, but even more so to Original Sin, something that seems to have little to do with us. The origin of this attitude may be found in an underdeveloped sense of Revelation: “Without the knowl edge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake. . . . Only in the knowledge of God’s plan . . . can 1. What are some implications of being made in the image of God? Of all visible creatures only man is “able to know and love his creator” (GS, no. 12). He is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake” (GS, no. 24), and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. (CCC, no. 356) 2. What is the main result of Original Sin? By his sin, Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings. (CCC, no. 416) 3. Why didn’t God prevent the first man from sinning? God gave us free will and would not interfere with the use of our free will: Christ’s inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon’s envy had taken away. (CCC, no. 412, cit ing St. Leo the Great, Sermo 73, no. 4)