How bad was "the fall of man"?

We all know that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree and then sin entered the world.  But what exactly did they do?  What were the consequences?  Do we really understand just how bad it was?

Take a look at the temptations of Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, notably verses 8-10:

"Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’”

To paraphrase, Satan says "I'll give you all of the Kingdoms of the World if you worship me." What does Jesus say? "Worship God alone."  What is very notable at this point is what Jesus does not say.  He fails to respond with "Those aren't yours to give."  Sure, he could be cutting straight to the point.  But, lets think about this logically.  If we assign the "If P, then Q" structure, this would become:

"If (you worship me), then (you can have all of the kingdoms of the world)"

Now, Jesus said "heck no" to worshiping Satan.  But what did he not say?  In the "If P, the Q" form, if Q is impossible, the the entire point of the argument is moot.  Jesus did NOT say, "Pffft, the kingdoms of the world aren't yours to give, Satan."  Which he probably would/should have if it weren't true.  Moreover, Jesus does give arguments like this.  Remember when the Sadducees were asking Jesus about the woman who was married to 7 brothers (one after the other after each dies) in Matthew 22:23-33.  They ask, "Who's wife will she be in the resurrection?"  Jesus simply says, "There won't be any marriage in the resurrection."  That is, I don't need to explain, the question is irrelevant...

So, then, the kingdoms of the earth really ARE under the power of Satan.  I don't mean this in a "Satan rules every government" sort of way (though he certainly has some deep roots in ours).  I just mean that Satan must have real power on earth.  And Jesus acknowledges it.

Generally speaking, I don't like the "what does that tell you" kind of assumption arguments, but I think this is actually quite convincing.  Satan really does have power.  The only way he could have gotten it is from the fall.  Jesus gave Peter the "keys to the kingdom" and Adam & Eve analogously gave Satan the "keys to the earth".

For more information on this, you can refer to a book by Eduardo Siguenza titled "John Paul II, The Pope Who Understood Fatima."  I haven't read the book, but from what I have heard he explains this concept in much more detail.

Our 'Daily' Bread.

...our daily bread...

The Lord’s prayer contains the line: “Give us this day our daily bread”. This line is in both Matthew’s gospel (chapter 6, verse 11) and in Luke’s gospel (chapter 11, verse 3). Here is the interesting part... In Matthew’s gospel, the greek word that we translate as ‘daily’ is epiousios. This is a challenging word for translators. This is the only time that this word is recorded inall of ancient greek literature, no other books of the bible, nor any other pagan writings. If we break this word down into its roots here is what we get:

• epi - upon, over, or above.
• ousios - being, nature, or substance.

So, literally, it translates to “over nature”, or “above nature”, or to use another word in place of above, “super substantial” (which is how it is translated in the Latin Vulgate, a late 4th century Latin translation of the bible; largely done by St. Jerome). A more modern translation might be “super natural”. With this, the words of Jesus become:

Give us this day our super-substantial bread.

Or,

Give us this day our super-natural bread.

The bread that is above nature... This bread, is the Eucharist. We use the word “transubstantion” to describe how the bread changes into the body and blood of Chirst, and it sounds like this word is a super-fancy-Latiny word that professors use so that they can give exams. But, as the root “trans” also means above (think of transcends) we can see that trans-substance is actually the word that Jesus used when he taught us how to pray:

trans-substancial  =  super-substancial  =  super-natural

Give us this day our epiousios bread; our trans-substantiated bread; our super-natural bread; the Eucharist... I also don’t think it is a coincidence that this occurs in Matthew, but not Luke. Matthew’s primary audience was Jewish-Christians, and they would have known full-well about super-substancial bread.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church talks about all of this, and more, in paragraph 2837.

(Most of this was courtesy of Drs. Scott Hahn and Brant Pitre.)

Prototypes of the Eucharist

This title should give it away immediately.  I am studying Catholic apologetics.  Right now I am not so much worried about the "apologetics" (I will post about that in the future), but rather a deeper understanding of my own faith.  You can't defend what you don't understand.  I am currently working on the Eucharist.

One word that will be important in many of my posts is the word "typology".  The study of "types".  As St. Agustine once wrote, "The new testament is hidden in the old and the old testament is revealed in the new."  We can look back through the old testament and find where God "set the table" for things to come that would be revealed by Christ in the new.  Below are several prototypes of the Eucharist:

The Tree of Life in the Garden
Gen 2:9 “Out of the ground the LORD God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  Then, they ate from the Tree of Knowledge and sin entered the world, and...

Gen 3:22-24 “Then the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever 23 therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Some of this looks familiar, John Chapter 6 verses 35, 51, and 54:

• “I am the bread of life...” and
• “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever” and
• “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”

The fruit on the Tree of life was a prototype of the Eucharist. They were driven away because of mortal sin. They were driven away for their own protection.

The Sacrifice of Abel

What did Abel sacrifice in Genesis chapter 4?  It was a firstling from his flock.  It was either a flock of ducks, chickens, flamingos, or sparrows, or... sheep.  More than likely it was a lamb.  Yep, Abel sacrificed a lamb... "Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world."

The Bread and Wine of Melchizedek

Gen 14:20 “And Mel-chizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.”  So, Melchizedek brought bread and wine...  Then in Hebrews 5:8 “ Being designated by God a High priest according to the Order of Mel-chizedek”.  Jesus is the High Priest of the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek brought bread and wine when he made a covenant with Abraham. Jesus brings his body and blood in the form of bread and wine.

The Sacrifice of Isaac

Genesis chapter 22

Verse 2: God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

gets up early to cut the wood (will be a burnt offering)

Verse 3: On the third day

Verse 7: Isaac says “Here am I, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Then Abraham says “The Lord god will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”

What happens next? Abraham goes to sacrifice his son, God says STOP!

A few things to notice. Isaac carries the wood. Enough wood to burn a human. Lots of wood. He carries it up a mountain before he is sacrificed. Isaac is a MAN, not a child.

Abraham was 99 when Isaac was born. There was no struggle. Isaac was willing to sacrifice himself.

The Exodus and the Passover

What was the passover? The final plague. The Angel of Death was going to come and kill the first born. All of them. Pharaoh’s first born, the maidservant’s first born, the first born of the cattle.

God gave the Israelites instructions so that the Angel of death would “pass over” their home.

What were the rules?

• Sacrifice an unblemished lamb with no broken legs.
• Dip a hysop branch in the blood and spread it on the door posts.
• Eat the flesh of the lamb... YES. You had to eat the lamb. The end. No lamb eaten, first born=dead.
• Keep this as a memorial day, you shall observe it as an ordinance forever... FOREVER.
• Then for 7 days eat unleavened bread.

This is the biggest and best prototype in my humble opinion.  There is more here than I have time to type.  First of all, the lamb had to be unblemished, that is, without sin.  Jesus is the unblemished lamb.  Moreover, in the book of Revelation, he is called "Lamb of God" more than anything else.  I wondered about the "unbroken legs".  Why was such a big deal made about this in the old testament? Well, what happened when they wanted to make sure the men on the crosses were dead?  They would break their legs, which they did to the thieves, but they didn't break Jesus' legs.  He is the lamb with unbroken legs.  When Jesus said "I thirst" signifying the 4th cup of the passover meal he started the night before (maybe I'll do an entire blog post on this later), they dipped a hysop branch in wine and held it to his mouth, and then he said, "It is finished."  The passover was complete...  Finally, the Hebrews needed to eat the lamb.  They NEEDED to EAT the sacrificial lamb.  It is the same today, we must eat the sacrificial lamb, which is the Eucharist.

The Sinai Covenant

Moses and the “young men” made sacrifices to the Lord:  Exod 24:8 “And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

The Ancient Tabernacle: They were instructed to build a tabernacle. It was a tent... It would house:

• The Arc of the Covenant: Contained the spirit of God.
• The Bread of the Presence
• The Golden lamp stand.

This was clearly an image of the trinity. God the Father, the lamp stand was the spirit of fire, aka the holy spirit. The lamp stand had 7 candles. That leaves the bread of the presence for the Son.  The bread of the presence was a sacrifice made to god. It was 12 loaves. Each week the priests replaced the bread and consumed the old bread in a holy place.

The Splinter and the Sin.

This evening, my 4 year old son, Conner, didn't want to go to bed.  He had a tiny splinter in his foot that he needed removed.  So, he asked if he could watch a movie while I took it out.  As it were, I am a master-surgeon when it comes to splinters.  I actually thought to myself, "wow, what a brave boy, when I was his age, I distinctly remember acting like my leg was being amputated without anesthesia whenever I had a splinter being removed." So, I got all prepped: needle, head-light, tweezers, and the rubbing alcohol.  When it came time to do the deed, the water-works began, and I literally had to hold him in submission while I did the minor surgery.  When he realized that his struggling and moving and fighting was completely useless (I am really good at putting a kid into "submission"), he simply asked for his blanky and laid peacefully while I finished the job.  When it was all over and I got out the splinter that was approximate 1mm long, I asked if it hurt.  He simply smirked and shook his head "no".  I asked, "Does it feel better?" He replied, "Yes."  And I said, "I'm glad, I love you."

What a great metaphor for our lenten journeys.  We begin quite confident that we can turn away from sin.  That this  will be the time we finally give it up.  But when it comes time to let go of our habits, we fight Christ tooth and nail.  I know I said  I wanted the sin out, but maybe I didn't mean it.  I will kick and fight and struggle to hold onto it.  But, then, in a moment of Grace, we finally listen to Christ tell us "don't worry, let go. Just trust me, you'll feel better when it's over."  We relax and let Christ go to work on our soul.  When Easter finally arrives after 40 "agonizing" days (comparatively trivial to the real agony Christ suffered), we look back and decide that we didn't need that sin after all.  Christ asks us, "Does it feel better?" and we reply... "Yes." And He says, "I'm glad, I love you."

The Beginning...

The Beginning...

To make a long story short, the past year has been a whirlwind for me.  I have embarked on a faith journey into the marvelous land of Catholic apologetics.  In fact, my entire life has been a whirlwind. Not of the crazy-life-story variety, in that respect, my life has been quite dull.  But, rather my journey of spiritual and personal growth has been a whirlwind.  Let me put it this way:

1997: Agnostic
1998: Theist
1999: Christian
2004: Roman Catholic
2009: Lifeteen Coreteam (adult leader of the youth group)
2010: Joined the Lifeteen Band
2014: Learning how to be an RCIA Teacher (Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults)

To say the least, it has been an interesting 16+ years; all the way from agnosticism to a teacher of the Catholic faith.  I don't want to, necessarily, write about how I got here; but rather what I am currently studying.  This blog will, in large part, be a place where I can  sort out of my thoughts on the things I am currently learning.  One of my favorite quotes is:

"There are some who desire knowledge merely for its own sake; and that is shameful curiosity. And there are others who desire to know, in order that they may themselves be known; and that is vanity, disgraceful too. Others again desire knowledge in order to acquire money or preferment by it; that too is a discreditable quest. But there are also some who desire knowledge, that they may build up the souls of others with it; and that is charity. Others, again, desire it that they may themselves be built up thereby; and that is prudence. Of all these types, only the last two put knowledge to the right use" (St. Bernard, Sermon on the Canticle of Canticles).

While the exercise of "prudence" is certainly an end to my studies, I hope that I can build up others along the way.