Creation, Sin, and Redemption

Sisters and brothers, as we come today, we come to discuss creation, this wonderful act of love, this free act of love of God. For all of the cosmos, all of creation. The sin, our own failings, human persons, sin as it was introduced into the world, in the account of Adam and Eve. How we indeed live with the fact of sin in our lives and the power of Christ to free us from sin and the glory of that story.

So we come together today to talk about those. We start with the book of Genesis. In the book of Genesis, there are two creation accounts the human person is at the center of both of those. God indeed creates the water and the sea, in the sky, in the land and the animals and the fish and the birds. But the pinnacle of creation is this human person for whom God can love and receive love in return.

The conscious love. We’re told that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Oftentimes, that is interpreted. That means we have a reason, a will, and the capacity to act and love to act in freedom.

But we might even say more about that. We may say that being made in the image of God means we have the capacity of self-knowledge, and reflection means we have the capacity to live in Communion with our brothers and sisters.

It tells us we have the capacity to be stewards and coworkers of God in the care of creation. In fact, the creation accounts leave us with this sense that we're called to not only enjoy the fruits of creation, but also to be good stewards, not to dominate and abuse and use, but to be stewards of all the goods of creation.

But along the way, we do encounter in the book of Genesis in those early chapters this event of Original Sin, Adam and Eve being turned by a lie, and turned by their own pride and self-will. That freedom that we have from God, that self-will and a lie to turn and to take the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the very tree they were forbidden to eat from, from God.

That singular act reflects for us as Christians the way sin entered the world. If you think before that, what did the world look like? The Paradise of Adam and Eve was a fruitful place. It was a place where they were able to walk and talk with God and one another and live without shame.

It was the original harmony. Original Sin creates original disharmony, and alienation takes place in which we become alienated from ourselves.

We become alienated from our brothers and sisters, our communities, from our world, and alienated from God. Original Sin is that inclination in us. We call it by a fancy name, concupiscence. It's that inclination in us to do those things that aren't the best for us in our relationship with God, ourselves, and others in the world.

That sin of self-will stays within us. It's important for us to understand, though, that original sin isn't an act. It's not something we do. It's a state that we're born into.

Saint John Paul the Second had a wonderful image for that.

He talked about we talk about the Communion of saints and how we're connected to the saints, living and dead.

Those who are still completing their pilgrimage through purgatory. He said Original Sin is much the same in a negative way, that we’re connected to the web of sin that exists in our world.

And that we’re born into and attached to that web. The power of Baptism is that it frees us from that web. That web no longer has a hold on a claim on us; that temptation stays with us, but we’re not bound to it.

We are able to live freely by the grace of God given to us in Baptism.

We pass from original harmony to disharmony, and through the grace of Baptism, we're introduced to a second harmony. The wonder of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection is that he is enabled by grace to give us a harmony that’s even greater than the original blessing. So, we receive the second powerful blessing in our lives as Christians. And then, in the most wonderful setting of eternal life, this greater blessing.

When we walk into the Church, the Franciscan tradition has these words, and it’s powerful words for us. We walk into the Church, and we see that crucifix, that pathway through suffering, death, and resurrection that leads us to the life of grace, that leads us to restoration and freedom from the life of sin. We can say with joy, “We adore you, oh Christ, and we praise you because, by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.” And with that, sisters and brothers, we are renewed.

1. How does recognizing ourselves as stewards of creation reshape our approach to the environment and our relationships with others?

2. In what ways does understanding original sin and concupiscence help us appreciate the gift of grace through Baptism?

3. How can the crucifix serve as a symbol of hope and a reminder of Christ's redemptive power in your daily life?