70. God sends us Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer.

God sends us Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 70

Ave Maria series

70.  How does God draw us out of the whirlpool of evil?

God does not just look on as man gradually destroys himself and the world around him through the chain reaction of sin.  He sends us Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer, who snatches us from the power of sin.  [410-412, 420-421]

Christ Pantocrato, St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai:

 “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” John 14:6 ….. 70

“No one can help me”—this maxim of human experience is no longer accurate.  Wherever man may have strayed by his sins, God the Father has sent his Son there.  The consequence of sin is death (compare Romans 6:23).  Another consequence of sin, however, is the marvelous solidarity of God, who sends us Jesus as our friend and Savior.  Therefore original sin is also called felix culpa (happy fault):  “O happy fault…which gained for us so great a Redeemer!”  (Liturgy of the Easter Vigil).

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth: we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father.  John 1:14

[410-412, 420-421]

ORIGINAL SIN

"YOU DID NOT ABANDON HIM TO THE POWER OF DEATH"

410 After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall.( Compare Genesis 3:9,15.)³⁰⁴ This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium ("first gospel"): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

411 The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the "New Adam" who, because he "became obedient unto death, even death on a cross", makes amends superabundantly for the disobedience, of Adam.( Compare 1 Corinthians 15:21-22,45; Philippians 2:8; Romans 5:19-20.)³⁰⁵ Furthermore many Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the "new Eve". Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ's victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.( Cf. Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus: Denzinger-Schonmetzer 2803; Council of Trent: DS 1573.)³⁰⁶ –CCC

412 But why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds, "Christ's inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the demon's envy had taken away."( St. Leo the Great, Sermo 73,4: Patrologia Latina 54,396.)³⁰⁷ And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is nothing to prevent human nature's being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good. Thus St. Paul says, 'Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more'; and the Exsultet sings, 'O happy fault,. . . which gained for us so great a Redeemer!'"(St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III,1,3, ad 3; compare Romans 5:20.)³⁰⁸ –CCC

IN BRIEF

420 The victory that Christ won over sin has given us greater blessings than those which sin had taken from us: "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20). –CCC

421 Christians believe that "the world has been established and kept in being by the Creator's love; has fallen into slavery to sin but has been set free by Christ, crucified and risen to break the power of the evil one. . ." (Gaudium et Spes 2 § 2). --CCC