Rm 7, 14-25 When I want to do right, evil is at hand

(Rm 7, 14-25) When I want to do right, evil is at hand

[14] We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. [15] What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. [16] Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. [17] So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. [18] For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. [19] For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. [20] Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. [21] So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. [22] For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, [23] but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. [24] Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? [25] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.

(CCC 405) Although it is proper to each individual (Cf. Council of Trent: DS 1513), original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence". Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle. (CCC 408) The consequences of original sin and of all men's personal sins put the world as a whole in the sinful condition aptly described in St. John's expression, "the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29). This expression can also refer to the negative influence exerted on people by communal situations and social structures that are the fruit of men's sins (Cf. John Paul II, RP 16). (CCC 1741) Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free" (Gal 5: 1). In him we have communion with the "truth that makes us free" (Cf. In 8:32). The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle teaches, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor 3:17). Already we glory in the "liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8:21).