LESSON 10: ORIGINAL SIN

1.What special gifts did God give to Adam and Eve at their creation?
Besides their natural gifts, God gave them:
The supernatural gift of Sanctifying Grace, the life of God within their souls, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity. They were thus the children of God and the Friends of God.

God gave them the preternatural gifts (gifts that go beyond our human nature) of
- Freedom from suffering and death.
- Complete control of their passions by reason. Passions are emotions such as anger, fear, sorrow, sexual desire, joy, etc. Thus Adam and Eve would not be angry or sad or fearful, etc., unless they wanted to be.
- Great knowledge infused into their souls.
Had Adam and Eve never sinned, all of us would have been conceived and born with these special gifts.

2. What command did God give to them?
God gave them the command to note at of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or they would die. God wanted them to be happy.

3. Did Adam and Eve obey?
Seduced by the devil, they disobeyed God. They wanted to be “like God”, but “without God.”

4. What happened to Adam and Eve because of their sin?
-They lost sanctifying grace and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
-They lost all the preternatural gifts mentioned above.
-They would suffer and die.
-Their reason would no longer have complete control over their passions and emotion.
-They became ignorant of many things that before they had known.
-They would have an inclination to evil called “concupiscence.”

5. What is this sin called?
This sin is called original sin. Original Sin means the first sin

6. What has happened to us on account of Original Sin?
On account of the sin of Adam, we, his descendants come into the world with original sin. We are deprived of Sanctifying Grace and inherit their other punishments:
Suffering and death, lack of complete control over the passions; Ignorance, An inclination to evil called concupiscence.

7. What did baptism do?
Baptism washes original sin off our souls, and give us Sanctifying Grace, the life of Jesus in our souls, and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.

8. What did baptism NOT do?

Baptism did not remove: suffering and death; lack of complete control over our passions; ignorance; and concupiscence, which is an inclination to evil.
-These effects will totally disappear only if we reach heaven and have our glorified bodies at the end of the world.

9. How does the inclination to evil, called concupiscence, affect us?
Because of concupiscence we tend to think more about pleasing ourselves than pleasing God.
Our heats turn quickly to things like candy, TV, sleep or even sinful desires.
Our hearts turn away from things like obedience, prayer and study.
We have tendencies to be proud, to tell lies, to be mean, to be jealous, to eat too much, to be lazy, to be disobedient, to have impure thoughts, to be angry, to be depressed, etc. This is because of original sin.

10.How can we fight against concupiscence?
We can fight against concupiscence by obedience, praying, receiving the Eucharist and Confession often, by sacrifices, by devotion to Mary, and by trying to be good. We will have to pray and try all our life.
We will have to struggle against our selfishness all our life.
If we keep praying and trying, with the help of God our heats can become better.
Our hears can become holy. They can become more like Jesus and Mary.

11. Besides Jesus, was anyone ever free from original sin?
The Blessed Virgin was free from original sin. Through the merits of Christ’s death on the Cross, God kept her free from original sin. God lives out of time, so he could appl to Mary the merits of Jesus even before Jesus was born. Mary’s freedom from original sin from the first moment of her existence is a gift of God’s mercy called the Immaculate Conception. Because of this gift she always loved God, even in her mother’s womb. She never sinned her whole life. God first announced the future Immaculate Conception of Mary right after the sin of Adam and Eve. God told the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and. Her seed’ she shall crush your head and you shall lie in wait for her heal. (St Jerome’s translation of Genesis 3:15) God crushed the devil through Mary’s sinlessness. Mary continues to crush his head through her prayers. Because of this the devil fears a small prayer from Mary more than the prayers of all the other saints.

The Miraculous Medal

In 1830, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Catherine Laboure. She asked her to have a medal made. On the front t part of the medal Mary is crushing the head of the serpent (the devil) with her feet, and graces are coming from her hands. Mary joyfully gives these graces to those who ask for them. She sadly noted however that if people do not ask for graces she is not able to give them.

Around the image of Mary on the medal are the words, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”

St Catherine then heard a voice say, “Those who wear this medal with devotion around their neck and who confidently say this prayer, will receive graces and will enjoy the special protection of the Mother of God.”

A Miraculous Medal Story

Claude Newman was a prisoner in jail. He was going to be put to death for having killed a white man who was attacking his wife. He was poor, had no religion, and had never learned to read or write. One of the four prisoners in the cell with him wore a miraculous medal. When Claude asked the prisoner what the medal meant, the prisoner became embarrassed. HE ripped the medal off his neck and threw it on the ground. Claude picked it up, and with a string put it around his neck. That night the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him. She told him: “If you would like me to be your mother and you would like to be my child, send for a Catholic priest.” The next day, when the priest didn’t believe Claude, he told the priest something that had happened in the priest’s life many years before Mary had revealed this to Claude so that the priest would believe him. The priest taught Claude his catechism, and at the same time, Mary continued to pray for Claude. At his Baptism, God became his Father and Mary became his Mother. Claude was put to death on February 4, 1944. Everyone was amazed to see Claude die with such happiness. He couldn’t wait to go to heaven where he would see Mary and most importantly, he would see God. His last words to the priest were: “Father, I will remember you. When you have a request, ask me. In heaven I will ask her for you.”

The Miraculous Medal – the prayer on the medal says: “Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”