Better than the original
I am referring to ourselves. We are better than our original and first parents, Adam and Eve.
That's simply because our first parents, though at the beginning, enjoying the best God-given privileges a person can have, did not have the power to recover their dignity as God's image and likeness and children of his, once they lost it through sin.
We, on the other hand, who have been made a new man in Christ, and in spite of our many sins, not only can recover that dignity but can even enhance it further.
With our first parents in their state of original justice, God, our Creator, remains as God. With us, precisely because of our sins and of our great need for redemption, God makes himself as man. We have managed to make God man also. Wouldn't that mean a better deal than what our first parents had?
While our first parents, before their fall, were in the state of grace and enjoyed what are termed as the preternatural gifts of immortality, impassibility and integrity, they however did not know how to handle the greatest temptation to replace God and the consequences that would follow if they fell into that temptation, which was what happened to them.
We, on the other hand, are already born with a handicap, that is, without the state of grace (this is what original sin means) and continue to fall into sin, but at least we are taught how to handle our weaknesses, our temptations and our sins so we can recover our lost dignity as children of God and can even enhance it further.
St. Paul has something relevant to say about this. "The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit...The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven...Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven..." (1 Cor 15,45ff)
It is worthwhile to be familiar with this wonderful truth of our faith so we can start to draw practical and helpful consequences for ourselves. In fact, St. Paul concluded his insight by saying: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the word of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." (1 Cor 15,58)
This wonderful truth of our faith is a good antidote to our tendency to get depressed and pessimistic about our condition when we are constantly buffeted by our weaknesses, the temptations around, and by the sins we seem unable to avoid.
It gives us reason to hope and to feel confident in spite of our problems and difficulties. It can readily snatch us away from our tendency to fall into despair or to launch into wild, sinful abandon because of our sinfulness.
It encourages us to continue doing good even if we commit many mistakes along the way. That is why we have every reason to be happy and serene in spite of whatever, and to be patient with any problem, be it a person, an event or a circumstance. We may not understand everything of how this truth works out in detail, but it's enough that we believe in it and conform our life to it.
It obviously is not meant to make us proud and abusive of the goodness of God, of the great fortune we have received from God. That is why, this truth has to be handled with great humility, otherwise it is can spoil us, and spoil us tremendously.
All the goodness and blessings of God should be handled with humility and thanksgiving, otherwise they can corrupt and destroy us.
It would be good if we can slowly meditate on this truth and start to develop a certain plan of developing the appropriate attitudes, virtues and skills. The world today, plunged in its worldly dynamics that is indifferent if not hostile to God, is in great need of men and women who have an outlook in life that is both realistic and hopeful, practical and full of faith.
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