Original Sin - an essential Truth of the faith; First Sunday of Lent

Original Sin - an essential truth of the faith; First Sunday of Lent

With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated.  Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story’s ultimate meaning, which is revealed in the light of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin.  The Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to” convict the world concerning sin,” by revealing him, who is its Redeemer.  (CCC 388).

Hear O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the Lord speaks:  Sons have I raised and reared, but they have disowned me!  Ah! Sinful nation, people laden with wickedness, evil race, corrupt children!  They have forsaken the Lord, spurned the Holy One of Israel, apostatized.  Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; learn to do good.  Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.  Come now, let us set things right, says 

The Lord: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they may be crimson red, they may become white as wool.  If you are willing, and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you refuse and resist, the sword will consume you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.  (Is 1: 2, 4, 16 - 20).

Apparently none of us really get beyond the evils of life when our sins reflect in some manner what the people of Judah and Jerusalem encountered that Isaiah had a vision about.  Perhaps we might take the very failures of the Old Testament mistakes and place them directly before the world’s unrest that promises another world war.  In addition to that, the apostasy that is confronting our Church and all of Christianity is going to become a path for non-believers, an opportunity to bring Communism into a once Christian/Jewish reality.  What Christmas should have reminded us is the very reason for Christ’s Incarnation is now what prepared him for Calvary and the elimination of sin’s hold on us. 

We just celebrated the Baptism of Jesus and the waters of the Jordan have become the symbol of his Blood that we must hold dear to our 40 days of remembering what his Cross reveals to you and me.

Ralph B. Hathaway