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74 • Part I. The Creed: The Faith Professed
• Adam and Eve transmitted to all future generations a human nature
wounded by their sin and deprived of original holiness and justice.
This deprivation is called Original Sin.
• Because of Original Sin, human nature is subject to ignorance, suf-
fering, death, disorder in our appetites, and an inclination to sin—an
inclination called concupiscence.
• But the victory over sin that Jesus accomplished has provided
greater blessings than those taken away. “Where sin increased grace
abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20). Baptism delivers us from
Original Sin.
• Because every human being is made in the image of God, each one
has a desire for union with God. Humanity has been reconciled to
God by the redemptive death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Although set by God in a state of rectitude, man, enticed by
the evil one, abused his freedom at the very start of history.
He lifted himself up against God, and sought to attain his goal
apart from him. Although they had known God, they did not
glorify him as God, but their senseless minds were darkened
and they served the creature rather than the creator (cf. Rom
1:21-25). What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by
our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart he
finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many
evils which cannot come from his good creator. Often refus-
ing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has also upset
the relationship which should link him to his last end; and at
the same time he has broken the right order that should reign
within himself as well as between himself and other men and
all creatures.
Man therefore is divided in himself. As a result, the whole
life of men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a
struggle, and a dramatic one, between good and evil, between
light and darkness. Man finds that he is unable of himself to
overcome the assaults of evil successfully, so that everyone feels
as though he is bound by chains. But the Lord himself came