Theologically, your blood and mine cannot save human’s lives, and if it does so, it’s only for a short time BUT WHY? We all struggle to keep our loved one safe during the course of life and so often we really fail. But with Christ that is different! How?
When Adam sinned all humanity involved in that sin, In other words all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as St. Paul affirms (Rom 5:12,19): “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” and, “sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.”(CCC402) and we humans lost the supernatural life (the participation in God’s own intimate life. Jesus lived a supernatural life while on the earth. He was constantly in touch with His Father. He lived in total obedience to His Father’s will. He never did anything outside of the Father’s will.
The book of Genesis (3:8) tells us the intimacy Adam and Eve had with God; e.g., when they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden and how they hid themselves from his presence, the Lord called Adam, “where are you?” Adam answered God that he’s hiding because he’s naked (Genesis 3:6-11)…
Adam and Eve were created in (Thomas Aquinas)
- grace and were given the
- preternatural gifts which means what is beyond our grasp as ordinary people beyond what is normal or natural.
So when we say preternatural gifts we mean that Adam was a rectified person (means he was naturally upright , morally had correct behaviour, thinking and righteousness. Also He had :
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infused knowledge, naturally knew God, no one taught him unlike us, we have to learn about God and build a relationship with Him. A knowledge that is sufficient to understand everything that he did experience (Thomas Aquinas)
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He had immortality,
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freedom from pain,
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and the absence of concupiscence.Concupiscence according to the Catholic Church teaching (405), is this inclination TENDENCY to sin to evil, because original sin has deprived STRIP us of original holiness and justice. ∗ Trent defines concupiscence as follows: Concupiscence or a tendency to sin remains [after baptism, but] the catholic church has never understood it to be called sin in the sense of being truly and properly such in those who have been regenerated, but in the sense that it is a result of sin and inclines to sin (667*).
To understand original holiness and justice we need to know that God gave Adam intellect and free will to love him or refuse his love. Before the temptation of satan, Adam and Eve chose to accept the love of their God and in return to love him back also, they chose to obey Him and submit to His will. This harmonious living before the fall is called original holiness and justice. IN SHORT It’s LOVE AND OBEDIENCE.
But human nature is not wholly corrupted but actually wounded, subject to CCC405
- ignorance (we have to learn everything) , read write…
- suffering (we get diseases,cancer, we get old…), and the
- dominion of death.
In the end, these weaknesses and inclinations to evil persist in us and compel us to fight spiritual battles.
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