Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 68 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 68 - Part II. Original sin? What does the Fall of Adam and Eve have to do with us?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Sin in the strict sense implies guilt for which one is personally responsible. Therefore the term “Original Sin” refers, not to a personal sin, but rather to the disastrous, fallen state of mankind into which the individual is born, even before he himself sins by a free decision.    

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 388) With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story's ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Cf. Rom 5:12-21). We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. The Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to "convict the world concerning sin" (Jn 16:8), by revealing him who is its Redeemer.      

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) In talking about Original Sin, Pope Benedict XVI says that we must understand “that we all carry within us a drop of the poison of that way of thinking, illustrated by the images in the Book of Genesis… The human being does not trust God. Tempted by the serpent, he harbors the suspicion … that God is a rival who curtails our freedom and that we will be fully human only when we have cast him aside… Man does not want to receive his existence and the fullness of his life from God. … And in doing so, he trusts in deceit rather than in truth and thereby sinks with his life into emptiness, into death” (Pope Benedict XVI, December 8, 2005).

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 389) The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ (Cf. 1 Cor 2:16), knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ.      

(This question: Original sin? What does the Fall of Adam and Eve have to do with us? is continued)