CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 2A:

• Man's Last End
• Human Acts
• The Passions
• Habits in General
• Virtues
• Vices and Sins
  • 71. Vice and Sin
  • 72. The Distinction of Sin
  • 73. The Standing of Sins Toward One Another
  • 74. The Subject of Sin
  • 75. The Cause of Sin
  • 76. Ignorance as a Cause of Sin
  • 77. The Sensitive Appetites as the Cause of Sin
  • 78. Malice as the Cause of Sin
  • 79. External Causes of Sin
  • 80. The Devil as the Cause of Sin
  • 81. Human Beings as the Cause of Sin
  • 82. The Essence of Original Sin
  • 83. The Subject of Original Sin
  • 84. One Sin as the Cause of Another
  • 85. The Effects of Sin
  • 86. The Stain of Sin
  • 87. The Debt of Punishment for Sin
  • 88. Venial and Mortal Sin
  • 89. Venial Sin
• Law
• Grace

82. The Essence of Original Sin

1. A habit is a steady or enduring quality which inclinesa power to act. In this sense, original sin is not a habit in uswho inherit it. But, in a second sense, a habit is a lastingdisposition in a complex nature which makes for the well-being orill-being of that nature; this type of habit is sometimes called"almost a second nature." Original sin is this lattertype of habit in all who inherit it. It is an ill disposition offallen human nature. St. Augustine (In Ps. 118, serm. 3)calls it "the languor of nature."

2. Original sin is specifically one sin. It is not acomplexity or plurality of sins in each human individual. It is onesin in each individual.

3. In its own essence, original sin is the"deprivation of the original justice." In consequence ofthis deprivation, man's normal drive and desire for God arechanged into a drive and desire for temporary and changeable good.Since drive and desire are called concupiscence, it is accurate tocall original sin (as it works out in human beings) by the name ofconcupiscence.

4. Original sin is not more in one person than in another;it is equally in all, and is equal in each one.

"If, devout soul, it is your will to please God and live a life of serenity in this world, unite yourself always and in all things to the divine will. Reflect that all the sins of your past wicked life happened because you wandered from the path of God's will. For the future, embrace God's good pleasure and say to him in every happening: "Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight." "
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. "
Thomas á Kempis

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"Try to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God. "
Thomas á Kempis

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