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We are now better able to solve the objections against
original sin. 1. Original sin is not repugnant to
divine justice, because it is the privation of grace and
the preternatural gifts, which were not owing to our
nature. The just God could grant these gratuitous gifts
to the human race on the condition that Adam, the head of
elevated nature, should not sin and not forfeit these
gratuitous gifts for himself and for us.
2. Original sin is not repugnant to God's wisdom or
goodness. As St. Thomas explains, "Nothing
prohibits human nature from being brought to something
higher after sin. God permits sin and evil that He may
elicit something better. Hence it is said, 'Where sin
abounded, grace did more abound.' "[1624] And in
the blessing of the paschal candle the Church chants,
"O happy fault, that merited so great a Redeemer.!"
God could not permit evil except for some greater good,
but we cannot say "a priori" for what good God
permitted original sin. After the Incarnation took
place, however, it is sufficiently clear that God
permitted the abundance of sin that grace might more
abound. He permitted this universal evil in the human
race so that He might give us something better and more
efficacious for salvation through the redemptive
Incarnation. Christ, the head of the Church,
infinitely excels Adam. The Blessed virgin Mary is
incomparably more perfect than Eve, and the Eucharistic
sacrifice offered in every church immeasurably exceeds the
divine worship offered in the terrestrial paradise.
Once the existence of original sin has been admitted, we
can more easily explain the present condition of the human
race. This doctrine solves the enigma of the coexistence
in man of such great frailty and misery and such strong
aspirations for the sublime. "Some signs appear," says
St. Thomas, "of original sin in the human
race."[1625] In Pascal's words, "Without this
mystery man is more incomprehensible than the mystery is to
man."[1626] From experience, therefore, man is
able to know his profound need for the Redemption that
would elevate him again to the life of grace, which is the
seed of eternal life.
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