Jesus, I trust in you!
Before original sin, there was
first original holiness and justice. “The first man was not only created good,
but was also established in friendship with his Creator and in harmony with
himself and with creation around him…” (CCC 347) Adam and Eve were constituted
in original holiness and justice wherein they shared in the divine life. They lived
in Divine intimacy and in doing so, were exempted from suffering and death.
Living in the garden was the sign that our first parents enjoyed God’s
friendship.
But all was changed when man
allowed himself to be seduced by the devil. The serpent disguised as good and
pleasurable what is actually fatal. “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust
in the Creator die in his heart and abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command.”
(CCC 397) In that sin, man preferred himself to God and by that very act
scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirement of
his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a
state of original holiness, man was destined to be fully ‘divinized’ 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.’ (CCC 398) Because of their first
disobedience, Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness.
They became afraid of God of whom they have conceived a distorted image – that
of a God jealous of his prerogatives. The control of the soul’s spiritual
faculties over the body is shattered, the union of man and woman becomes
subject to tensions, their relationship henceforth marked by lust and
domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation became alien and
hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject ‘to its bondage to
decay…Death makes its entrance into human history. (CCC 400) The personal sin
of Adam and Eve affected the human nature that they would now transmit in a
fallen state. They will transmit a human nature that is deprived of original
holiness and justice. They will transmit a human nature that is wounded in the
natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion
of death, and inclined to sin – an inclination to evil which is called
“concupiscence.” (CCC 404-405)
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| The Immaculate Conception |
The response of God to all this is
the promise of a Savior. God will send his Son to be born of a Woman who will
be established in perpetual enmity with the devil. As Adam is the source of
sin, Christ is the source of grace. The bad news of original sin will be
reversed by the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need
salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. (CCC 389) Mary,
who is destined to be the Mother of the Redeemer, became the first to be
redeemed. By God’s decisive act, Mary did not inherit a human nature that is
deprived of original holiness and grace. Instead, she is “full of Grace”
because from the very beginning of her human existence, she was filled with the
Holy Spirit. The Lord was truly with her. In Mary, we find that paradise lost
became paradise regained. God, who is wonderful in creating man, was even more
wonderful in restoring him to grace. This wondrous act of God is concretely
seen in Mary. In Mary, we behold the glory of the new creation in Christ which
far surpassed the beauty of original holiness and justice. All beautiful in the
grace of God, Mary rightfully appropriates for herself the song of the prophet
Isaiah: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for
he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of
justice, like a bride adorned with her jewels.” (Is 61:10) Mary shows us the
beauty of creation redeemed and human nature fully divinized by God in glory.
Hers is the glory that we aspire for. Thus we turn away from the wickedness of
sin and struggle against our concupiscence. Purified by the grace we receive
from the sacraments, we hope that one day we shall also regain the paradise we
lost. To Mary, we cry for help: “Bend from your throne at the voice of our
crying. Look to this earth where your footsteps have trod. Stretch out your
arms to us living and dying, Mary Immaculate, Mother of God.”
O Mary conceived without sin, pray
for us who have recourse to thee!
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