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DE WOHL, Louis
An Unpopular Sin There are popular and unpopular sins. Thus, for instance, the glutton is a "gourmet" and the drunkard a merry figure. And when we call a man a Don Juan, he may even feel flattered rather than insulted. Hereditary sin, on the other hand, is definitely unpopular. So much so that many people simply deny its very existence, usually on the grounds that it would be incompatible with the justice of God. God would not punish us for something our ancestors had done many thousands of years ago. And surely, babies could not be afflicted with hereditary sin! Innocent, newborn babies! Why, the little darlings are as pure as snow! The whole thing is maze of confusion because, as usual, the good people have no idea of what they are talking about. They have had their religious instruction as children, and they have never expanded their knowledge much--if at all. God created our ancestors as perfect beings. By their rebellion, their act of faithlessness and disobedience, they lost that perfection. But of imperfect parents only imperfect children could be born. And since the state of imperfection is a consequence of the rebellion of our ancestors, we call it "hereditary sin." Thus there is no question of personal guilt involved. Our imperfection consists in the lack of supernatural grace. That grace is a free gift of God. He is under no obligation whatever to give it to us. Our guilt, then, is impersonal, collective. There are parallels to it in many other fields. The whole family suffers when Dad has gambled all his money away. Although perhaps only a small clique leads a nation into a disastrous war, a whole nation suffers the consequences. And we are imperfect. The innocent, pure, newborn baby is a little bag of innocent, pure, and newborn egoism. It is envious, jealous, and irascible. "That's just because it doesn't know better yet," says the indignant mother. Exactly. Just so. It does not know better yet. It is not perfect. "But that's only human," says Papa. Exactly. Just so. It is human because none of us is perfect. Perfect is what we all want to become again. Through the sacrament of baptism we again receive God's gift of supernatural grace which our ancestors lost. But our nature needs constant training and constant supervision. We are all "bent," and the process of being straightened out is long and painful. That process is called life. De Wohl, Louis. Adam, Eve, and the Ape. Chicago: Regnery, 1960. |