“The original sin was a refusal of history, of waiting, of growth, for the sake of an illusory desire for immediate fulfillment. It was the refusal to ratify God’s omnipotence by freely contributing to its advent through loving submission to his word.” (Jean-Pierre Batut)

“The sin of our first parents consisted not merely in the violating of an external commandment, but in the choosing of an inferior human order over the divine order which sustains and governs it. Their sin was not that they loved earthly things too much. They loved too little what God had made by loving it in the wrong way, choosing to ignore that all beauty in things rests upon their having been created by the all-good God in an order which must be respected even when this order cannot be fully understood. God alone is the author of the beautiful and by loving His works with a pure heart we return, we remain bound to Him.” (Peter A. Kwasniewski)

The reality of this sin became clear to Paul. He wrote in his letter to the Romans“I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want to do but what I hate....So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.  For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,  but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?” (Rom 7:15-24) (To be continued)