Reflection on Original Sin

I think it is good for us to know how original sin, or the first sin, affected us and how Christ's salvation helps us.

Original sin caused us to lose original justice, which fundamentally, is the will's subjection to God.  Because of this, our minds became subject to ignorance, our desires became inclined to go against reason or conscience, and we became subject to sickness and death.

In spite of this, original sin did not completely wipe out the good of human nature.  At our core, we are still good because we are rational, that is, we are inclined to virtue.  No sin, or amount of sin, can take this away.  If it could, we would cease to be human.

But even though the first sin did not destroy our inclination to virtue, it did diminish it.  As was mentioned above, our feelings and desires have a tendency to go against conscience.  These irrational desires are called concupiscence, and they are an obstacle to our inclination to virtue.  The main problem with these desires is that they can lead us to become too attached to created things; they make it easier for us to love created things more than the Creator.

In baptism, God changes all of this.  The fundamental change he makes is that he restores our lost relationship with him, which brings our wills into subjection to his.  Because of this, the ignorance of our minds is replaced with knowledge of God and truth, and concupiscence is weakened.  We are still subject to sickness and death, but these can be means to a deeper love of God and neighbor.

Because God neither completely removes the ignorance in our minds nor concupiscence in baptism, he has left us with a battle we have to fight every day.  We still have forces within us, which lead us to go against the new creations that we are.  However, the power we have in us from the indwelling Trinity is greater than the elements of original sin that remain.

God will strengthen us to be true to our new identity in Christ.  May we avail ourselves of his help through constant prayer and worthy reception of the sacraments.