In order to
believe in the Second Eve, one must believe in the First Eve. If one
does not believe in Original Sin, or original innocence, how does one
believe in the Incarnation, the Passion and Resurrection of Christ?
I am still working
on my series on perfection and have been thinking about one of the
dangers of the theory of evolution, which, as all thinking people
know, is a theory.
In Catholic
doctrine, we must believe that we have descended from one man and one
woman. We conveniently and because of tradition, call these first two
parents Adam and Eve. We cannot believe in group creation, which is a
clear departure from the idea that all humans come from one set of
special male and female parents.
We also believe
that these parents were perfect, in the sense that they had no
concept of sin or evil. That had what the Church describes as
"preternatural gifts", including health and immortality,
the lack of decay and disease, a will and emotional life which were
not inclined to sin (integrity), a clear and keen intellect including infused knowledge, and communion with
God in His grace. God created man and woman in His own Image and
Likeness, which would reflect the Beauty of God. Man and woman are,
as we are reminded in the CCC, "the summit of the Creator's
work". Man is the only creature who is "able to know and
love his creator". In the same section in the CCC, we read that
" He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of
freely giving himself and entering into communion with other
persons." The CCC insists on the common origin of the human
race. Many references in the CCC should be studied, including Humani
generis, which I have quoted before on this blog.
There was a
happiness and a holiness which belonged to our first parents which
was lost by sin.
The trouble with
evolution, which we are allowed to believe in as Catholics, as long
as we believe in only two parents of the entire human race, and the
creation of the soul and body by God, is that it denies the original
perfection of the human race and believes in the false, and heretical
idea of progressiveness, which means that people are getting
more and more holy and perfect through-out history. This is a
modernist heresy condemned by the Church, and those documents may be
seen on the side of this blog.
The common ideas
of early humans indicates that they seem less than perfect, and
atheistic interpretations of creation want those images to be burned
into our memories. If Adam and Eve were created in a perfect state of
humanity, albeit, a state which would indicate the seriousness of
Original Sin; that is, that they should have "known better",
just as Lucifer should have foreseen his fallen state, then the
common ideas of man and woman as ugly and even deformed according our
ideas of beauty.
As the CCC quotes,
from Romans, death enter into the world through the sin of Adam and
Eve.
This sin brought
disease, decay, the clouding of the intellect, concupiscence,
the weakening of the will. These were NOT present in the
first parents. So, one can see the problem with the views of
evolution which deny an original perfection.
In other words, we
are less perfect, without grace and purification, than our first
parents. It is only in Jesus Christ and through the sacramental life
of the Church that we regain states of holiness and perfection. Baptism takes away Original Sin and makes us Children Of God. The
Gifts of the Spirit, given in Confirmation, restore us to a state of
progress in the Holy Spirit, which does not happen otherwise.
Conforming to the Mind of Christ is conformity to the teachings of
the Church and the spiritual journey to perfection, without which, no
one sees God.
If man and woman
are seen as not being perfect, that leads to a denial of the
seriousness or even existence of Original Sin. If one does not
believe in Original Sin, then there is no need for the Incarnation,
the Passion and the Resurrection, the Church, the Sacraments,
especially Baptism, and the entire life of grace given through the
Sacraments of the Church.
The most common
sin of the modern day is the denial of sin and the subsequent denial
of hell. The heresy of universal salvation is believed even by some
Catholics, including priests, one who teaches this from the pulpit
not too far from where I am at this moment. How many people are going
to hell because of this denial of the Justice of God, the Purity of
God? (*see my post above on the Perfection of God).
One reason why
it is so hard to be a saint in today's society for many people is
that they simply do not believe in original goodness, a perfection
which can be restored through Christ and His Church.
Mary is called by the Church, (and I recommend an excellent little
book by Blessed John Henry Cardinal Neman on this—Tan Books
re-issued it years ago) the New Eve or the Second Eve. That Mary was born without
Original Sin, in fact conceived without Original Sin, makes her the
new Eve. She is perfect as Eve was before the Fall, with all the
graces and perfections of Eve before the Fall.
Mary is the Immaculate Conception. Eve was created
without sin. But, Eve's fall caused all her children to live in sin,
whereas Mary's perfection brought God into the world.
Here is a section from Newman's book: And so of the great
Mother of God, as far as a creature can be like the Creator; her
ineffable purity and utter freredom from any shadow of sin, her
Immaculate Conception, her ever-virginity—these her prerogatives
(in spite of her extreme youth at the time when Gabriel came to her)
are such as to lead us to exclaim in the prophetic words of
Scripture, both with awe and with exultation, “Thou art
the glory of Jerusalem and the joy of Israel; thou art the honour of
our people; therefore hat the hand of the Lord strenghtened thee, and
therefore art thou blessed for ever.
Evolution, if believed by a Catholic, must include a belief in the original
perfection and beauty of our first parents. Without this basic belief
in the first parents and their state of grace, the rest of the
History of Salvation, makes no sense.
