‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (4)

by Fr Ian

Punishment and Promise

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise by Benjamin West (1738-1820)

Chapter 3 of Genesis concludes with an account of God delivering his sentence on Adam and Eve - and the serpent.

The serpent is cursed by God to ‘go upon its belly’ and ‘eat dust for all the days of its life’. Eve learns that from now on she will experience great pain during childbirth, that her relationship with her husband will be contaminated by lust and a struggle for dominance. Adam is condemned to onerous and frustrating work which will often be largely fruitless. (Genesis 3:14-19).

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (3)

By Fr Ian 

The consequences of the first sin

It would be a huge mistake to read chapter 3 of Genesis with a purely legalistic mentality that sees the original sinful action of Adam and Eve as mainly the breaking of a rule or a commandment. The real essence of their sin was the breach of their personal relationship with God, the rupture of their harmonious friendship.

Jesus' portrait of a loving parent: The Prodigal Son by Nikolay Losev (1855-1901)

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (2)

by Fr Ian

 

The nature of the first sin

God showed his protective care and his trust of his human creatures by issuing a strict commandment, a prohibition: ‘...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die’ (2:17).

Apart from what this says about God’s character, it also tells us that human beings weren’t created as robots; their reverence and obedience towards God wasn’t somehow pre-programmed and automatic. God made them so that they had to choose voluntarily to co-operate and share responsibility with him in the care and maintenance of his Creation.

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (1)

For many church communities the Season of Lent started again a week ago on Ash Wednesday. Lent is the main penitential season of the Church's year and in a series of articles Fr Ian discusses the Catholic view of human nature as it was originally created by God and as it became after the fall of Adam and Eve. 

A lantern slide depicting the original harmony that existed between God, humanity and creation

A change in awareness

‘2025 is the time for an expansion of human consciousness that will shock some, but be welcomed by others,’ argues David Derrington, in this thought-provoking philosophical reflection.

Sometimes you wake from a dream wondering if it has a significance. One morning recently I woke from a dream, remembering nothing except it ending with me walking through a gateway and a clear understanding of its meaning.

'In the midst of life we are in death'

In one of our fortnightly 'Services of Prayer and Reflection', organised jointly by the Anglican and Catholic church communities of Blaenau Ffestiniog, Revd Roland offered some thoughts on Christian beliefs and practices concerning mortality and life after death.

I'd like to say a few words today about death. Not about how we cope with the grief and emotions of death - there are vast amounts of literature on that subject - but how we try to understand the religious/theological significance of death.