Better than the original

I AM referring to ourselves. We are better than our
original and first parents, Adam and Eve.

            That’s simply because our first parents, though at the
beginning, enjoying the best God-given privileges a person can have,
did not have the power to recover their dignity as God’s image and
likeness and children of his, once they lost it through sin.

            We, on the other hand, who have been made a new man in
Christ, and in spite of our many sins, not only can recover that
dignity but can even enhance it further.

            With our first parents in their state of original justice,
God, our Creator, remains as God. With us, precisely because of our
sins and of our great need for redemption, God makes himself as man.
We have managed to make God man also. Wouldn’t that mean a better deal
than what our first parents had?

            While our first parents, before their fall, were in the
state of grace and enjoyed what are termed as the preternatural gifts
of immortality, impassibility and integrity, they however did not know
how to handle the greatest temptation to replace God and the
consequences that would follow if they fell into that temptation,
which was what happened to them.

            We, on the other hand, are already born with a handicap,
that is, without the state of grace (this is what original sin means)
and continue to fall into sin, but at least we are taught how to
handle our weaknesses, our temptations and our sins so we can recover
our lost dignity as children of God and can even enhance it further.

            St. Paul has something relevant to say about this. “The
first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a
life-giving spirit...The first man was from the earth, a man of dust;
the second man is from heaven...Just as we have borne the image of the
man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven...” (1
Cor 15,45ff)

            It is worthwhile to be familiar with this wonderful truth
of our faith so we can start to draw practical and helpful
consequences for ourselves. In fact, St. Paul concluded his insight by
saying: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the word of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15,58)

            This wonderful truth of our faith is a good antidote to
our tendency to get depressed and pessimistic about our condition when
we are constantly buffeted by our weaknesses, the temptations around,
and by the sins we seem unable to avoid.

            It gives us reason to hope and to feel confident in spite
of our problems and difficulties. It can readily snatch us away from
our tendency to fall into despair or to launch into wild, sinful
abandon because of our sinfulness.

            It encourages us to continue doing good even if we commit
many mistakes along the way. That is why we have every reason to be
happy and serene in spite of whatever, and to be patient with any
problem, be it a person, an event or a circumstance. We may not
understand everything of how this truth works out in detail, but it’s
enough that we believe in it and conform our life to it.

            It obviously is not meant to make us proud and abusive of
the goodness of God, of the great fortune we have received from God.
That is why, this truth has to be handled with great humility,
otherwise it is can spoil us, and spoil us tremendously.

            All the goodness and blessings of God should be handled
with humility and thanksgiving, otherwise they can corrupt and destroy
us.

            It would be good if we can slowly meditate on this truth
and start to develop a certain plan of developing the appropriate
attitudes, virtues and skills. The world today, plunged in its worldly
dynamics that is indifferent if not hostile to God, is in great need
of men and women who have an outlook in life that is both realistic
and hopeful, practical and full of faith.

            The truth is that God has already given us everything we
need to be what we ought to be. In both the best and the worst
scenarios of our life, we have the means to defend ourselves from the
harmful effects these possibilities can have, and to recover ourselves
once we fall.

            It’s always good to remember that we are better than the
original, so we can move forward in earnest, rid of unnecessary fears
and doubts.