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Man's greatness and misery 

The biblical reports

Misunderstanding  of  Original  Sin  has  its  roots  in  the  different interpretations  of  the story about the fall of humanity, which cannot be done literally as in the past. This is the story of humanity ("Adam" simply means "man" and is not to be understood as name of a particular person), which, right from the beginning,  went the wrong way, thwarting God's will and plan. Since then, all people have entered  the  world  marked  by a NO to God.  Through sin at the beginning, man lives within the domain of sin. The failure of Adam, the human being, is not only past but present, as right up to our day every human being says NO to God again and again, and in doing so, stands by the first man and his sin, alienating himself personally from God and participating personally in the guilt for this world's fatal sin-entanglement.

Only the fact that there was sin from the beginning is dogma. Not all the details of the story should be understood literally. The same applies to the question whether all people are descended from a single pair of humans (monogenism), or several first parents (polygenism). The biblical report about creation leaves this question open and it has nothing to do with the religious statement.

Today, the world has become "smaller" for us. We know that a dictator in one corner of the world can involve half the world in a terrible war. But even a single father of a family who leaves his family, can fatally switch the future direction of generations. We know that with the birth of every human being, decisions are made that affect his entire life: belonging to a certain people, a certain class or society , this or that religion, etc. The people of Israel felt very strongly that they were all in the same boat, especially as far as man's sinfulness is concerned.

Your adversary,  the devil - (1 Peter 5,8)

If through sin man hurts himself so much, the question arises: why does man voluntarily act so foolishly? We cannot really understand this. Man always  strives only for something that seems good to him, that seems to have a value. So, sin must also offer itself to him under the guise of something good and worthwhile, otherwise nobody would decide to pursue it. The "forbidden fruit" in paradise is a good example of this. It was "especially beautiful".   A thief also thinks that the possession of other people's property means enrichment and happiness  for  him.  Every  person who lies wants to avoid punishment or gain respect from others. This is the way to explain why man can make the decision to sin and prefer sin to God's friendship. However, every time he does this his experience is the same: he finds he was mistaken and in  the end sin does not pay. But he is torn  between his desire and his obligation. Saint Paul complained: "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." (Romans 7,19). What is it that prevents him from doing good? Why does man end up doing evil which, basically, he does not want?    

Man's greatness and misery

Sin - consciousness

keeps the world from becoming inhuman. This is why we maintain that an alert sin-consciousness allows us to live together in a more harmonious, human way. We cannot make a distinction between our failures before God and our fellow-man. When we are guilty toward men, we also turn away from God. And this alienation continues in the relationship between man and his environment. Every sin makes it worse. Looking at the pictures of sites bombed down during war, we may begin to see these connections.
 

Estrangement between God and man, man and fellowman, man and environment is the  consequence of sin.  And  this shows that by turning away from God, we  strike not at Him (this is impossible anyway), but at ourselves. We completely lose the sense of our destiny. Uncertainty, desperation, suffering, illness and death are signs of this. Everybody knows examples of how disorder and sin also destroy a man physically (drinking and drugs, slandering, etc.) It is not God who punishes sin, but sin punishes itself.
 

All of us experience how each sin increases the vulnerability to further sin. Once we are weakened, another sin does not seem to be so evil. And a chain reaction of further evils follows. And in the end there is often despair and then the question: Is there no God or does He simply not care about this tormented humanity? Man sins, but he blames God.

Original sin

On the other hand, we say, and rightly so, that man cannot be made the scapegoat for everything. Is there not much injustice and suffering in this world that cannot be blamed on individual persons? I cannot always be said to be personally guilty for it.

The Bible puts it this way: sin is not only sin as the deed of a single man, but also as the given situation of the human existence from the beginning. Every person is born into a world marked by sin. Before he himself is able to do  anything  unjust,  he  is  "stamped" by "original sin", a term that is not understood by many people. What do I have to do with the sin of Adam? Why should I suffer in consequence?

Normally, sin is understood as a personal deed, but this is exactly what "original sin" is not. This is why the Church teaches that no man will be lost on account of original sin alone, since it is a condition that deprives us of something that we should have according to the will of God: active friendship with God. 

Man's greatness and misery

Sin - rejection of the love of God

Egoism means putting things upside-down. God and humanity are there for each other, but man separates from God and makes himself the norm of all order. As a consequence, the sources of his life dry up.

But who still thinks about "sin" today? What is it really? Have we not lost the sense of sin? In fact, we know the various forms and the consequences of sin today as well as Paul did, 2000 years ago: people dominated by sin are filled with "all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless." (Romans 1,29-31). But we are no longer used to recognizing these experiences as sin and calling them such.

The "shades" of sin

Naturally, we are not conscious every time we sin that we have offended against the will of God. Often, we realize only later that we are guilty. So, sin is not immediately sin. There are degrees of sin, depending on how conscious and premeditated the NO to the will of God was. God judges us according to our attitude, our intention, how closely our  action conforms to our conscience. What the action was is not decisive in itself. It may be that someone commits a sinful action without being guilty, since he or she does not see nor want its sinfulness.

Nobody is without sin

Everybody  experiences  failure,  neglect or omission.  We are always less than what we could be and, according to God's plan, should be. "If we say we have no sin,  we deceive ourselves,  and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (John 1,8).

Consequences of sin

When a sin has been committed, it is not finished.  The condition of guilt exists. This is true of inter human relationships, where lies are followed by hatred, egoism and alienation. In the same way a (serious) sin leads to alienation from God and breaks the bonds of love between God and man.

There is a secret craze of innocence spreading in our society. Failure and guilt,  if any,  is always found with other people only, with the past, nature, heredity and the environment. We like to credit our own account with the success of our actions. But if there are negative consequences, we deny our responsibility and we always find new excuses and alibis for our mistakes and  faults. These defense  mechanisms even enter our interpersonal relationships. Our attitude toward life and all our planning ceases to be directed by a feeling of being responsible for each other and calculations of our own profit prevail.