Day 54: The Fall of Man

Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history. CCC 386

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses the reality of sin and Adam and Eve's first or original sin, which sparked the Fall. The Catechism calls this original sin "an essential truth of the faith". We know that there is suffering and sin in this life, we all have experienced it and the reality of our eventual deaths reveals that we do not live in that paradise of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:4-25). Sin came from somewhere and I like how the Catechism says "We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin" (CCC 388). How Adam and Eve fell is recounted in Genesis 3, the reality of which the Catechism comments on: 

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. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents. (CCC 390)

Whether the Genesis account is meant to be taken literally or figuratively isn't really relevant here. What is relevant is the "essential truth" of the Fall and the original sin of our first parents. So whether eating a forbidden "apple" was really the cause or something else, Adam & Eve's fall from grace was a "rejection of God and his moral law" (Catechism Companion, p. 112). In our modern age some try to explain away the broken condition we find ourselves in, but the reality is:

Sin is not just a "developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, [or] a mistake." It is a rejection of God. (p. 112)

Fr. Mike Schmitz in his discussion on this section spoke about this point that really made me think. Every time we sin we are essentially putting our desires ahead of our relationship with God. Whether we are consciously aware of this or not. We are saying that those desires are more important to us than Him. Looking at it that way, it's no wonder that our Creator, the Almighty and Ineffable God, would be offended by this. Our choosing sin spurns the love He wishes to share with us as His creations, His children. Jesus Christ took on flesh through the Incarnation, and suffered and died for us in order to redeem us from our sins (Isa 53:5).  As the Catechism Companion states:

[W]e cannot fully understand original sin unless we understand, to some degree, grace. Even with original sin, we remain good. We are still created in God's image, but we are broken. (p. 112)

Christ is that grace and His sacrifice for us is what will heal us from our brokenness (1 Pet 2:24). 

One last point I'd like to focus on is the blame that Eve usually gets for being responsible for the Fall. I've heard that before and jokes about how we'd all supposedly still be in the Garden if not for this woman. There is some truth to this if one goes strictly & literally by the Genesis account. However, she didn't act alone. Adam was also there and chose to sin as well. I like how Maria J. Cirurgião puts this:

We ought to beware of reading into Scripture what it does not say. If we insist on the literal meaning of Genesis, Adam received God’s Law, not Eve, who was not yet made when God instructed him. There is no basis, in Genesis, to suppose that Eve had heard God’s voice before the Fall. She could only know of the Law from Adam’s lips. Had Adam taken God’s Law to heart, communicated its importance to Eve, taken pains to preserve her and himself from breaking it? Hardly. He was by Eve’s side even as she plucked the forbidden fruit, relates Genesis. A sin of omission, just before the sin of commission?

Adam is just as much to blame for the Fall as Eve is. It is thanks to the New Adam, Jesus Christ, that we have redemption from this original sin. The New Adam, who was without sin (2 Cor 5:21), undid what the Old Adam did (1 Cor 15:44-49). Likewise, the New Eve, by God's grace, undid what the Old Eve did (Luke 1:38).

The Fall and Expulsion from Paradise, fresco painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City (1510–1564)