The Baltimore Catechism Explained | Lesson 5: On Our First Parents and the Fall


Fr. Anthony Pillari JCL, MCL, STD

Lesson 5: On Our First Parents and the Fall

Welcome again to Our Lady of the Rosary Family Catechism for our fifth lesson – On Our First Parents and the Fall. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. O Jesus, I choose to live this day, for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.

We heard in our last lesson how the angels fell through disobedience. Unfortunately, our first parents fell in the same way. Have you ever felt within yourself something pushing you to do evil? For example, maybe there was a time when you promised your parents you were not going to fight with your brothers. You were going to be calm; you were not going to say bad words. And then, just a day or two later, you find yourself getting angry over nothing, maybe getting in a fight, or saying something you shouldn’t have said. If that’s ever happened to you, or if you’ve ever, for example, promised your mother and father that you were going to work hard at your studies, and then, some days later, you find yourself giving in to the temptation of laziness.

If that has ever happened to you, one of the reasons is that you have inside of you an inclination to evil; that is, something that is trying to move you to evil. That something comes from the sin committed by our first parents – Adam and Eve. God created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, in a beautiful garden that He had created for them called the Garden of Eden. It was filled with fruits, animals, and birds, all for Adam and Eve. In the midst of the garden there was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam, "You can eat the fruit of every tree in paradise. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you cannot eat. For the day you eat of it, you will die."

Now there was also a serpent in the garden. The serpent said to Eve, "Did God say you shall not eat of any tree in the Garden?" Eve answered, "No. We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden," but explained to the serpent that God had told them not to eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden nor even touch it, for if they did, they would die.

Then the serpent lied, and tricked Eve by saying, "No, you will not die. God knows that if you eat from that tree you will be like gods, knowing good and evil. Eve should have known that God, Who was so good to her and to Adam, would never have lied; and that if God had said not to eat from that tree, she should obey God. But she did not obey. She chose to listen to the temptation of the serpent. Eve looked at the tree, and seeing that its fruit looked good to eat, she took it and ate it. She then went to Adam, gave some to him and he also ate it.

Suddenly, the eyes of both of them were opened. They were filled with fear and shame. God called Adam and asked him if he had eaten from the forbidden tree. Adam tried to make excuses, and told God that it was Eve who had given him the fruit to eat. Eve also tried to make excuses and said, "The serpent deceived me and I ate it."

And so, God threw Adam and Eve out of the garden. Adam would now have to work hard all the days of his life, and Eve would have many sorrows – and they would both have to die. Let us look now at today’s questions:

Q. Who were the first man and woman?

A. The first man and woman were Adam and Eve.

Q. Were Adam and Eve innocent and holy when they came from the hand of God?

A. Adam and Eve were innocent and holy when they came from the hand of God.

God made them both intelligent and good. Adam and Eve were so happy in the Garden of Eden. You can’t imagine how happy they were in this beautiful garden. They didn’t even know what pain was. They had no pain, no suffering, and they were never going to die. They had grace in their souls; that is to say, they had very the life of God within them. God who loved them, looked on them as His children, and prepared for them the eternal joys of heaven. Adam and Eve were like children who had received everything from their loving Father. They would then inherit His entire fortune; that is, after a time on earth, God was going to welcome them up into heaven.

And yet, they were free. They could choose to continue living in the friendship of God, or to separate themselves from Him. And then came the test:

Q. Did God give any command to Adam and Eve?

A. To try their obedience, God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of a certain fruit which grew in the garden of Paradise.

The words 'to try' mean to test. To test their obedience God gave them a very simple command. To not eat the fruit of one specific tree. He did that because if we’re faithful in little things we’re also going to be faithful in greater ones. And if we’re not faithful in small things, then, we likely will not be faithful in greater ones. In questions of obedience, the key thing is the authority of the one you should obey… (such as) your parents, or your teacher, or the priest, or in this case it was God Himself – rather than how important the particular rule, or the thing they’re asking you seems to be.

The key point is you should obey your parents and anyone else who has authority above all because of who they are. That’s why disobedience to your parents, even in very small things, is a sin. It’s because you’re being disrespectful to who they are. When Adam and Eve were asked by God to obey, they had free will. They could freely choose either to keep His command and be happy, or to disobey Him and be miserable. If Adam and Eve had obeyed God then both they, and all of their children after a certain time of testing on the earth, would have been taken body and soul into heaven without ever having to die.

In other words:

Q. Which were the chief blessings intended for Adam and Eve had they remained faithful to God?

A. The chief blessings intended for Adam and Eve, had they remained faithful to God, were a constant state of happiness in this life and everlasting glory in the next.

However:

Q. Did Adam and Eve remain faithful to God?

A. Adam and Eve did not remain faithful to God, but broke His command by eating the forbidden fruit.

The Devil came to Eve in the form of a serpent and told her to take some of the fruit and eat it. She should have replied, "God loves us so much, He made all this garden for us and created us. All of the beautiful plants and animals, the earth, the sky, the beauty of the stars at night, He’s given us all these things. Moreover, God created us and treats us as His children. He would never lie to us. If He told us not to do this than He must have a very good reason. We will obey God. You are an evil serpent, and I will not listen to you or talk with you anymore."

But Eve did not do that. She didn’t say that. Nor did she go to God for help. Instead, she stayed in a dangerous situation, listening to the Devil’s temptations, and sinned. The same thing could happen to us if we’re not careful to obey God, to trust Him, and to go to Him for help whenever we feel tempted. If we stay in a dangerous situation, for example, in bad company, the Devil will work hard to tempt us. Not usually in a visible way. He won't usually appear and say, "I’m the Devil, I want you to sin," because if he did that most people – or at least – a lot of people would refuse. Rather, what he does is he tempts us in a hidden, secret way. He whispers. He says, "This would be really good for you. It’ll make you really happy."

The Devil whispers all sorts of reasons and we can begin to say, "Well, that sounds like a good idea." Unless we stay close to God. Unless we listen to God. Whenever we’re tempted or we’re confused, we should go to God and say, "Help me. I need You to help me know what is the right thing to do."

When you feel tempted, call also on your guardian angel. Because your guardian angel has special graces from God, where he knows exactly how to help you, how to guide you, how to protect you from the temptations of the evil one.

But let us come back to Eve. What did she do after she made this horrible mistake of committing the sin of eating the fruit? She not only took and ate the fruit herself, but also went and convinced Adam to sin. And that’s something that happens often. What did the Devil do after he sinned? He tried to get other people to sin. He was jealous. He didn’t want anyone else to be happy in heaven, which he had lost. So, he tries to get others and he tries to get us to sin. When human beings fall into sin, unfortunately, they often also try to get other people to sin. It’s very sad, but that’s what happens.

What was the punishment that was given to Adam and Eve because of their sin? In other words:

Q. What befell Adam and Eve on account of their sin?

A. Adam and Eve, on account of their sin, lost innocence and holiness, and were doomed to sickness and death.

They had been innocent and holy because they were friends of God in a state of grace. But then by disobeying Him, by sinning, they lost His grace and friendship. They lost the life that was to lead them to heaven. They were condemned to suffering and death. The word 'doomed' here means condemned or sentenced. Moreover, from then on, they were attracted to sin.

The first consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin was that they lost innocence. Their bodies began to rebel against their souls by being attracted to sin. Another consequence was the suffering of poverty, hunger, cold, sickness, death, and every kind of evil. But the worst consequence of all was that heaven was now closed to them. They lost God’s friendship. And all of us suffer because of their sin.

Let’s look at this point more closely:

Q. What evil befell us on account of the disobedience of our first parents?

A. On account of the disobedience of our first parents, we all share in their sin and punishment, as we should have shared in their happiness if they had remained faithful.

Now, you might think, "But that sounds unfair. I didn’t commit the sin of Adam and Eve. I didn’t go pick the fruit from the tree and eat it so why should I have to suffer. That’s not fair." But think for a moment. Do you ever complain because you’re given good things which you didn’t earn, but someone else did and they give good things to you? For example, have you ever said, "It’s unfair that as a child my parents give me all the food to eat when they earn it, and I don’t earn anything?" "Is it unfair they give me a house to live in when I didn’t do any work to buy our house?" "Is it unfair they take me on vacation when I didn’t do anything to earn the money for the vacation?"

No, we never complain about that being unfair.

God has created the world in such a way that what we do for good or evil has a big impact on other people. So, when your parents do good things, you receive a lot of the benefits from that. If your parents do bad things, you’ll be affected by that as well. Or your country, if the leaders of your country lead your country in good way, then, you’ll tend to benefit. If they make horrible decisions and lead your countries into poverty or terrible wars that are not fair, then, you’ll suffer.

God has made the world this way. But above all, He offers us tremendous treasures and graces that we’ve done nothing to earn – by the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. He above all offers us, you could say, in an unfair way – way beyond what is just or fair – the infinite treasures that come through Jesus Christ.

But now, let us look more closely at the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience. Adam and Eve lost God’s friendship and grace. All of their children, all of us, are born with the same lost. We too are left in sin until we are baptized. What are the effects of this?

Q. What other effects followed from the sin of our first parents?

A. Our nature was corrupted by the sin of our first parents, which darkened our understanding, weakened our will, and left in us a strong inclination to evil.

What do we mean by 'darkened our understanding'? Adam and Eve’s minds, thanks to the grace they had, knew much, much more, even without study, than the most intelligent men today could learn with constant studying. Before their fall they saw things clearly and understood them well. But afterward their minds worked more slowly and learned things with difficulty. Also, their will was weakened.

Before he fell, Adam could easily resist temptation because his will was strong; that is, his ability to choose to do what is right. After Adam’s sin, his will became weak and less able to resist temptation. Because we are sharers in Adam’s misfortune, we find great difficulty at times in overcoming sinful inclinations. But no matter how violent the temptation or how prolonged and fierce the struggle against it, we can always be victorious – always – if we go to God for help, and if we’re determined not to yield to temptation. Because God gives us sufficient grace to resist every temptation. If anyone should ever say as an excuse after he sinned, "I couldn’t help sinning. I just couldn’t help it. I couldn’t do anything different," he’s wrong. God was offering him the grace, even if it was difficult, He was offering him the grace to not sin.

We also have inherited a strong inclination to do wrong. That is, we see spring up within us jealousy, anger, these temptations pop up within us. We can always resist them, but they pop up spontaneously. Our Lord once cautioned His apostles, to watch and pray, lest they fall into temptation (Matt 26:41), teaching us also by this warning that we need to devote quality time every day to prayer, and that we need to be vigilant about temptations.

Over time, if we work at prayer and at developing good habits it will become easier to do good and to resist evil. But we’ll always have within us a certain weakness, a certain inclination to sin, something which is always going to be fighting against what we really want because of the sin of our first parents.

Finally, you should learn the name of this inherited sin:

Q. What is the sin called which we inherit from our first parents?

A. The sin which we inherit from our first parents is called original sin.

Q. Why is this sin called original?

A. This sin is called original because it comes down to us from our first parents, and we are brought into the world with its guilt on our soul.

When we are baptized the stain of original sin is washed away from our souls. However, the consequences of original sin; that is, our darkened understanding, our weakened will, and the inclination to evil remain. It is like someone who was very seriously sick, and even after the disease, even after they are better, their body will often be weaker than it was before they got sick. Therefore:

Q. Does this corruption of our nature remain in us after original sin is forgiven?

A. This corruption of our nature and other punishments remain in us after original sin is forgiven.

Finally, there is some good news.

Q. Was any one ever preserved from original sin?

A. The Blessed Virgin Mary, through the merits of her Divine Son, was preserved free from the guilt of original sin, and this privilege is called her Immaculate Conception.

The Blessed Virgin was to be the mother of the Son of God. To prepare her for this unique vocation that no one else in the history of the world would have, Jesus, who was to come down into her womb as a tiny baby; He chose to preserve her from original sin. She is the only one of the whole human race who enjoys this great privilege. It is called her Immaculate Conception. The Virgin Mary was conceived, she was brought into existence without having any spot, or any stain of sin upon her soul – and hence she was conceived without original sin.

Our Lord came into the world to crush the power which the Devil has exercised over men from the fall of Adam. Through our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, He merited the graces now poured out on all those who obey Him, so that they can withstand the Devil in all his attacks.

As the Blessed Mother was never under the Devil’s power, next to God she has the greatest strength against the Devil. And she will help us to resist the Devil if we seek her help. The Devil himself knows her power and fears her. If he sees her coming to our assistance he will quickly flee. Never fail then in time of temptation to call upon our Blessed Mother. She will hear and help you, and will pray to God for you.

I would like to now tell you about an apparition of our Lady that took place in the south of France in 1858, to a young girl named Bernadette Soubirous. Saint Bernadette was the eldest of nine children. Her family lived in poverty and she was often sick. Yet, when she was only 14 years old, our Lady chose to appear to her in a small grotto eighteen different times on eighteen different days.

St. Bernadette describes how in the first apparition she heard something like the rustling of wind in the trees. Upon looking around, she realized this wasn’t the trees, but was coming from a small cave. She looked over there and saw our Lady dressed in a beautiful white dress, with a blue sash around her waist, and two yellow roses on top of each foot, the same color as the rosary beads that she was holding.

Our Lady made the sign of the cross with Bernadette and then prayed the rosary with her. She then disappeared. On future days our Lady continued to appear to Bernadette in this grotto and to pray the rosary with her. On the eighth apparition, our Lady gave a message to St. Bernadette. Our Lady said, “Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!” During the following apparition, our Lady told her to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it, and to eat the herbs that grew there as an act of penance.

At first St. Bernadette could only find a little muddy water, so she began to dig in the dirt of the grotto. After the fourth attempt, there was enough flowing water so that she was able to drink and carry out the penances our Lady had asked of her. Soon, more than a thousand people had begun to gather during the apparitions. Our Lady asked that a chapel be built in this place so that the people could come in procession. But the parish priest wanted to know the Lady’s name. On March 25, 1858, our Lady finally revealed her name. She extended her arms toward the ground and then joined them in prayer saying, "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Bernadette went straight away to tell the priest these words even though she did not understand what they meant. They meant that our Lady had been preserved from original sin. Indeed, though Bernadette did not know it, the Immaculate Conception had been declared a dogma of the Catholic faith four years earlier by Pope Pius IX. To this day, people from all over the world travel to the grotto of Lourdes to bath in the waters of that same spring in the grotto. Many, many people have been cured by bathing in the water at Lourdes. The Church has declared after careful investigation 70 official miraculous healings.

May our Lady of Lourdes watch over you and guide you. I’ll look forward to seeing you for our next lesson. God Bless you.

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