Renata Milán Morales
Where does evil come from? The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace. We must approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on Him.
Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognise sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure.
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 only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The reality of Sin
This ‘fall’ consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolically evokes the limits that man must freely recognise and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.
Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinised” by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to ‘be like God’, but ‘without God, before God, and not in accordance with God’. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness.
Harmony with creation is broken. Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: man will “return to the ground”, for out of it he was taken. Death makes its entrance into human history.
Consequences for humanity
What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart, he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good creator.
Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptises for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin. By this ‘unity of the human race’ all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice. Original sin is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted.
The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides discernment of man’s situation and activity in the world – education, politics, social action and morals. Man must struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity. After his fall, man was not abandoned by God.
Why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St Leo the Great responds, “Christ’s inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon’s envy had taken away.” and St Thomas Aquinas wrote, “God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good.”
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 385-421