9. The Fall

9. The Fall
Scripture and Tradition Shed Light on the Origin and Mystery  of Evil
Compendium 73-78
Genesis 3:14-15
“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
 And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”
1. Evil began with the rejection of God by Satan and the fallen Angels.(Physical science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of angels because by definition physical science is limited to the physical and excluded from that which transcends physical reality)
2. Satan seduced our first parents to doubt God's friendship and thereby tricked them into subjecting themselves and their descendants to himself and to reject God.
3. In creating beings that share in his own freedom, God takes the risk of love.
4. Love means the lover freely chooses the beloved and vice versa.
It also means that the lover can love someone or something else in place of the beloved.
5. Instigated by Satan, Adam and Eve chose to replicate the sin of the fallen angels. That is to be "like God" on their own terms and masters of their own destiny without God.  They would reject God's warning and choose to decide to define for themselves what is "good" and what is "evil." This was the original sin which caused the loss of original grace of holiness and justice for them and their descendants.
6. Although human goodness and dignity were not lost completely, the natural harmony and friendship between the human family and God were radically disrupted.
7. Original sin is not a personal act but an inherent (inherited) part of the human condition that leads to the shared human tendency to reject God and choose what is evil.
8. All human beings, save the Blessed Virgin by a singular grace, are born with original sin.
9. God, the consummate lover, did not withdraw his love but lavished it all the more and promised that evil would be conquered and man would be lifted up from his fall. The Church sings of the sin of Adam and Eve as a "happy fault" because it reveals the infinite mercy and love of God for each of us.
10. The reality of sin can only be clearly understood through the light of divine revelation and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is the true answer to human suffering.
11. What cannot be contested is that evil exists and keeps the world in turmoil. Even Mother Nature disrupts in the form of storms and earthquakes in reaction to the disorder wrought by evil. Man’s inhumanity to his fellow beings is amply recorded throughout  history. Nevertheless, there has been steady progress and hope always abounds. The fact that more and more people dedicate their lives to peace and justice demonstrates that good can and does triumph over evil. That is what Jesus promises and delivers to all those who follow him faithfully.
12. "Adam" and "Eve" can also be considered as composites representing each and every one of us. Even after being cleansed of "original" sin we perennially tend to revert to selfishness. The Blessed Mother, by the grace of God and the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, is the solitary boast of our humanity and her son is our hope and promise of redemption.