In the
letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes about the reality of the trials and
challenges that a Christian must endure for the sake of growth and
sanctification He says "None of the trials which have come upon you is more than human being can stand. You can trust that God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you to put up with it."God allows trials and challenges to occur for a reason and a purpose. Although
the trials and challenges are unknown in the moment, St. Paul, nevertheless,
claims that trial builds endurance and character. In the trials, God gives the
strength to endure the trials. I would like to focus on a given topic regarding
out present stage. I bring up the view of trials for a reason in order to
question the manifestation of grace in life.
Being born into original sin, the
doctrine is about the disobedience of Adam’s sin. After the fall, man lost his
total innocence and communion with God, which is called original justice.
Original justice is the perfect of state of being where everything in creation
and humanity is in perfect harmony. In addition, original sin deprives the
person from having eternal life. The Fathers of the early Church touched on the
doctrine of original sin and what were the effects in humanity. Fathers, like
Augustine, claimed that the person that was not baptized went into limbo.
Pelagius in the fifth century did not believe in the doctrine of
original sin, and he believed that original sin had no longer a griped on
humanity. He thought that humanity was not flawed or fallen because of original
sin; he believed that humanity had a free will to choose to follow the Ten
Commandments, and that the sin of Adam had no affect on humanity. The person,
because of his free will, has the power to chose to sin, and it is only then
when man is responsible for his own sins. Augustine, of course, shot down the
argument, in the fifth century; he thought Pelagius had good ideas and
intelligence to expose his knowledge, but he fell into error by denying the
fact of the reality of human weakness and fallen nature. Augustine stated that
even though babies do not have the free will to sin because of their reason,
they still are born with original sin because of selfishness that exists from
birth.
The Apostles and the Church Fathers
proclaimed that baptism is necessary for salvation; without baptism, man cannot
be saved. Until this day, Protestants and non-Catholics continue to ask the
question whether a non-baptized baby could be saved. In baptism, original sin
is removed from the sinner, the holy spirit is given, the cleansing of other
sins are removed, becomes an adopted child of God, and has full communion with
the Holy Trinity. Here we realized that God removes all of sin from the sinner,
but there is still something remaining in human nature. That is, the effects of
original sin remain alive in the person, such as the daughter of original sin,
namely, concupiscence. Augustine and other Fathers of the Church talk about
concupiscence as the unruly appetites of the person or disorder love. She
dwells in the members of the body and ignites unruly passions like lustful
desires. Grace, however, is given in baptism and other sacraments to conquer
her in every way possible. In addition, grace gives the person the aid to have
self-control and grow in virtues daily.
My argument is based on the constant
struggle that man is faced with daily in his humanity. God allows these trials
and challenges for a common reason that at times is unknown to the person. God knows
exactly in what areas the person needs to grow to become the person that God
wants to see. But why would God allow a sinner to endure trials and challenges
and struggle if he or she has already repented, accepted Christ, baptized,
confessed, and desires not to abandoned God? This question many have many
answers from different people. But the fact is that what remains is the very selfishness
of original sin—Adam from the very beginning was created as self to reflect the
image and likeness of God to serve, to love, and to know his creator. I think
there was a shift from the self-mirroring image of God to the self-mirroring of
possession wanting to a god.
