The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-10-16
THE FALL OF MAN.


THE FALL OF MAN.
Man, unlike the angels, is not pure
spirit; he is spirit incarnate, or spirit
in the flesh, says the late Mgr. Robert
Hugh Benson in his brilliant essay
entitled Catholicism published by
the Catholic Truth Press. Man was
created innocent with certain knowl
edge of God, though not that full
knowledge of which he is capable, and
enjoyed Grace. Like the angels, how
ever, he was created free and like the
angels who fell, he also fell.
Now, says Father Benson, this is an
exceedingly significant doctrine taught
by the Church, for upon it depends in
a sense, the entire system known as
the Catholic religion. If man were
merely a creature struggling upwards
always, the most fundamental Catho-
lie dogmas would become devoid of
meaning. Certainly it is open to a
Catholic to believe that certain kind
of evolution had place in the process
of mans creation; that his body, for
example, was gradually fitted by selec-
ton and generation to be the habita-
ton of an immortal rational soul But
it is an essential of the Catholic Faith
that mans spirit, when first created,
was both free and innocent and that
1t fell from innocence by the abuse of
it's own free-will.
Man was created, therefore, to know
and serve God in this world and to
enjoy Him forever in the next world.
Yet mans first parents fell from this
destiny and transmitted that fallen
nature to their descendants. And it
is only possible for fallen man to re-
gain his position by the aid of Gods
Grace-that is by free gifts from God
of life and strength. Further, the sin
of man is so great an outrage against
God that nothing but an adequate
sacrifice can compensate for it, or can
win for man that access to a state of
friendship and union with his Creator.
This then, the Church teaches, is the
state in which natural man finds him
self in this world. He is fallen, but
he is not Gas Calvin taught) absolute.
ly corrupt; he has still conscience
that is, faculty by which he can
discern Good and Evil; he has still
aspirations after good and by the
mercy of God, certain power OF
choosing it. He is still free, though
his freedom is enormously hampered
by that downward tendency that is
the result of the Fall. Further, it is
taught, every man has sufficient grace
for salvation-sufficien help, that is
from God, to regain the destiny for
which God made him, and to avoid
the final doom to which sin naturally
and inevitably leads. He is faced by
two final states, and two only; and he
has but this one life on earth for his
probation. If he corresponds suffi.
GENTLY with the grace God gives him.
he passes gradually upwards to that
union with God of which he is capable,
and in Heaven enjoys eternalIy the
Beatific Vision-a state in which he at
once preserves his own individuality
If, on the other hand, he fails to
correspond with Grace and yields to
the downward drag of his fallen nature
in such degree as to be when his
probation closes with death in a state
of enmity or disunion with God, he
passes to that state which he has him
self in effect freely chosen, and in hell
is excluded eternally from the pres
ence of his Maker. Only, says Mon
signor Benson, it must be noticed in
passing, the Church has never YET
uttered a decision of final condemna
ton on any individual, since the in
terror dispositions of a man at the
time of his death can be known only
to God. No accommodation OIL
anathema can be more than an APP
lproximate attempt to deal with the
soul so far as she falls under the
Church's Jurisdiction; and such are
issued with the express hope OF
awakening such a soul to her owl
pOndition of danger. Neither does the
Church for one moment dare to
dogmatize as to the state of those
who die outside her pale: for although
1.-THE Church is the one Ark of Saliva
ton, this does not in any sense dero
gait from Gods sovereign right and
power to deal with souls in His owr
way.
All the Christian beliefs are agreed
as to the condition of man as regards
his Maker, says Father Benson. 1t i:
when it becomes question of the
proper system by which fallen mar
shall be restored, that differences be
| gin to declare themselves.
! 1t is hardly necessary to go init
the matter of the central doctrine O
the Catholic religion, namely, the In
carnation, beyond saying that it is b,
i this Incarnation that God and mar
are reunited The main heresies O
the world have occurred by reason o
i improper interpretations being place,
| upon the doctrine Of Incarnation; the,
fall roughly into two classes: (l'