Sunday Sermonette: Is Your Sin Original?
The very first religious service I ever went to was an exorcism.
I wasn’t born Catholic. No one is born a member of a religion. But my parents were (and are) good Catholics, and second in importance only to my birth was that I be made a Catholic as quickly as possible. So it was that within a few days of my birth, I was carried to a church. The exorcism rite began as my parent came through the door, before getting anywhere near the baptismal font. A priest breathed over me and expelled any lurking demons: Exi ab eo, immunde spiritus, et da locum Spiritui Sancto Paraclito. (Go forth from him, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete.) A little salt was put into my mouth, and then more words of exorcism were spoken: Exorcizo te, immunde spiritus, in nomine Patris + et Filii + et Spiritus + Sancti, ut exeas, et recedas ab hoc famulo Dei William… (I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father + and of the Son, + and of the Holy + Spirit, that thou goest out and depart from this servant of God, William…)
I was then carried to the stoup, where sponsors (my aunt and uncle) answered for me, renouncing Satan and all his promises and pomps. Then all present recited the Creed, and I had water poured over my head. Finally. I was anointed with holy oil, thus marked and sealed as a member of the One Holy Catholic Church and God’s personal property.
But why was it necessary to cast out demons from a baby only a few days old? Catholics don’t believe, as old fire-and-brimstone Calvinists like Jonathan Edwards preached, that the very floors of Hell were paved with the skulls of unbaptized infants, but they aren’t innocent, either. Infants bear the indelible stain of Original Sin. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” wrote the Psalmist.
What was this Original Sin? The Original Sin, it was explained to me, was Adam and Eve’s disobedience when they ate a fruit God had forbidden them. But wait a minute. Catholics aren’t Biblical literalists, at least they haven’t been in my lifetime. Pope Pius XII announced in 1950 that he had no problems with the idea that God might have field-tested the design of man on apes, so long as we acknowledge that at some point God put a soul in man. Pope John Paul II went even further, accepting evolution as an essentially proven fact. Humanity was made in the image and likeness of God, evolution was just How He Did It. Fiat Lux! spake God, and behold, there was a Big Bang.
That means there was no Adam and Eve. So where does this Original Sin come from?
This is where Catholics get inventive. Yes, humanity evolved from earlier forms, but the Biblical description of Creation and of man’s fall from grace is still true, even though it’s not written according to modern literary techniques or respect for accuracy. The Spirit of God who spoke through the Bronze-Age storytellers who gave us Genesis is not interested in mere literal truth that helps no one to salvation, but Capital T Truth, the sort that isn’t really true but is more than true. Is that clear?
Wouldn’t this be a flawed design from the Creator of All? No, because God gave humanity the special gift free will so that we could love him.
Angels don’t have free will, so how did Lucifer and his allies revolt? The Church says I have free will, but clearly I don’t - I’m already guilty of a terrible offense as a newborn babe. That’s illogical, unjust, and immoral.
Ah, says the Church, but all humans are pre-disposed to sin, to willfulness and disobedience. How does that change anything? It’s even more monstrous, because it says that God stacked the deck when he created us. There can’t be free will without complete freedom to choose. This is a heads I win, tails you lose trick.
Worst of all, the Exorcism and Baptism I underwent as a newborn only absolved me of Original Sin. Very soon I’d learn about all kinds of other sins for which I would deserve unimaginable and eternal torment. Not just acts, but even thoughts offended the perverse heavenly tyrant.
No wonder I cried.
I wasn’t born Catholic. No one is born a member of a religion. But my parents were (and are) good Catholics, and second in importance only to my birth was that I be made a Catholic as quickly as possible. So it was that within a few days of my birth, I was carried to a church. The exorcism rite began as my parent came through the door, before getting anywhere near the baptismal font. A priest breathed over me and expelled any lurking demons: Exi ab eo, immunde spiritus, et da locum Spiritui Sancto Paraclito. (Go forth from him, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete.) A little salt was put into my mouth, and then more words of exorcism were spoken: Exorcizo te, immunde spiritus, in nomine Patris + et Filii + et Spiritus + Sancti, ut exeas, et recedas ab hoc famulo Dei William… (I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father + and of the Son, + and of the Holy + Spirit, that thou goest out and depart from this servant of God, William…)
I was then carried to the stoup, where sponsors (my aunt and uncle) answered for me, renouncing Satan and all his promises and pomps. Then all present recited the Creed, and I had water poured over my head. Finally. I was anointed with holy oil, thus marked and sealed as a member of the One Holy Catholic Church and God’s personal property.
But why was it necessary to cast out demons from a baby only a few days old? Catholics don’t believe, as old fire-and-brimstone Calvinists like Jonathan Edwards preached, that the very floors of Hell were paved with the skulls of unbaptized infants, but they aren’t innocent, either. Infants bear the indelible stain of Original Sin. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” wrote the Psalmist.
What was this Original Sin? The Original Sin, it was explained to me, was Adam and Eve’s disobedience when they ate a fruit God had forbidden them. But wait a minute. Catholics aren’t Biblical literalists, at least they haven’t been in my lifetime. Pope Pius XII announced in 1950 that he had no problems with the idea that God might have field-tested the design of man on apes, so long as we acknowledge that at some point God put a soul in man. Pope John Paul II went even further, accepting evolution as an essentially proven fact. Humanity was made in the image and likeness of God, evolution was just How He Did It. Fiat Lux! spake God, and behold, there was a Big Bang.
That means there was no Adam and Eve. So where does this Original Sin come from?
This is where Catholics get inventive. Yes, humanity evolved from earlier forms, but the Biblical description of Creation and of man’s fall from grace is still true, even though it’s not written according to modern literary techniques or respect for accuracy. The Spirit of God who spoke through the Bronze-Age storytellers who gave us Genesis is not interested in mere literal truth that helps no one to salvation, but Capital T Truth, the sort that isn’t really true but is more than true. Is that clear?
Wouldn’t this be a flawed design from the Creator of All? No, because God gave humanity the special gift free will so that we could love him.
Angels don’t have free will, so how did Lucifer and his allies revolt? The Church says I have free will, but clearly I don’t - I’m already guilty of a terrible offense as a newborn babe. That’s illogical, unjust, and immoral.
Ah, says the Church, but all humans are pre-disposed to sin, to willfulness and disobedience. How does that change anything? It’s even more monstrous, because it says that God stacked the deck when he created us. There can’t be free will without complete freedom to choose. This is a heads I win, tails you lose trick.
Worst of all, the Exorcism and Baptism I underwent as a newborn only absolved me of Original Sin. Very soon I’d learn about all kinds of other sins for which I would deserve unimaginable and eternal torment. Not just acts, but even thoughts offended the perverse heavenly tyrant.
No wonder I cried.