Theology of Session 2: Original Sin

the Body and the Fall from Grace

The human body is good but sometimes humans act badly. Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the
Garden of Eden. This was the original sin, whose effects we still feel today.
Original Choice: We have free will, the ability to choose good and evil. Adam and Eve also had this
awesome gift of freedom. Scripture tells us that God created man in the beginning and left him in the
power of his own inclination (Sirach 15:14).
Original Sin: Although God made all things good, the original pair of human persons chose evil
because of selfishness. Eve accepted Satans lie she wanted to become divine without Gods help. She
and Adam ate the fruit. Then the eyes of both were opened, and Adam later said to God, I was afraid
because I was naked; and I hid myself (Genesis 3:7, 10). The account of Adam and Eve is true. The
account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took
place at the beginning of the history of man (Catechism of the Catholic Church 390).
Language of the Lie: Although evil is a mystery that we can never fully fathom, its meaning becomes
clearer in light of Adam and Eves choice to sin. Evil was not part of Gods original plan. God did not
make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. . . . But ungodly men by their words and
deeds summoned death; considering him a friend, they pined away, and they made a covenant with him
(Wisdom 1:13, 16). Just as a person can receive genetic defects from his parents, so each of us has
received a spiritual defect from Adam and Eve; this is called Original Sin. Because of this historical
circumstance we are born into a fallen world.
The account of Adam and Eve and original sin helps explain an observation of St. Paul: I can
will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want
(7:18-19). We experience death, suffering, a weakened will, rebellious passions, and separation from
God, our neighbor, and creation. The heart is now a battlefield, and the body is at the center of this war
between good and evil.

GO DEEPER: QUESTIONS TO SHARE WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

1) What could you say to a person who denies that he has free will?
2) What evidence do we have that there is something fundamentally disordered in our world?
3) How does our faith in Christ give us hope despite the effects of sin?

GO FURTHER: PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

Name five lies that are told about the body through television, movies, internet, and song how they
depict the body in a way that falsifies its intrinsic dignity and goodness.