Bishop Barron on Original Sin
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses the beginning of Lent as a spiritual 'spring training,' likening it to revisiting the fundamentals in sports. It emphasizes the importance of going back to spiritual basics, drawing on the biblical creation story. Humans are formed from both the clay of the Earth and the breath of divine life, symbolizing our physical and spiritual nature. The video critiques secularism, highlighting that happiness is found in aligning with God's will, not defining good and evil by our own terms, as seen in modern culture. Lent offers a time to reflect on this spiritual journey.
Takeaways
- 💪 Lent is a time for spiritual training, like athletes practicing fundamentals to improve their skills.
- ⛳ Even the greatest, like golfer Jack Nicklaus, would return to the basics of grip, stance, and swing with his childhood instructor.
- 🌍 Humans are created from the clay of the earth, emphasizing our physical embodiment and connection to the planet.
- 🌬 God's breath, or 'ruach,' is the divine spirit that animates us, representing our upward aspiration towards God.
- 🌳 God places humans in a garden, encouraging them to enjoy life fully, with the freedom to experience everything but one tree.
- 🚫 The prohibition of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents humans overstepping by determining good and evil themselves.
- ⚖ The concept of sin is rooted in humans assuming the divine prerogative of determining morality, as seen in Justice Kennedy's statement about liberty.
- 😔 The Fall leads to intense self-consciousness, as symbolized by Adam and Eve realizing their nakedness and becoming self-aware.
- 📖 The core problem isn't specific sins like murder or theft, but the deeper issue of defining good and evil based on personal will rather than God's guidance.
- 🧐 Lent is a time to reflect on our fallen nature and search for the deeper reasons behind human unhappiness, with Genesis 3 offering key insights.
Q & A
What does the speaker mean by comparing Lent to 'spiritual spring training'?
-The speaker compares Lent to spiritual spring training by emphasizing the importance of returning to the fundamentals, just as athletes do during training, no matter how advanced they are. Lent is a time to refocus on the basics of spiritual life.
How does the speaker connect the creation of humans to the concept of being 'made from the clay of the Earth'?
-The speaker explains that being made from the clay of the Earth symbolizes our physical, embodied nature. We are composed of the same molecules and minerals as the Earth, which aligns with scientific understandings like Carl Sagan's idea that 'we are star stuff.'
What is the significance of God breathing 'the breath of life' into humans, according to the speaker?
-God breathing the breath of life into humans represents the spiritual dimension within us that aspires to connect with God. This breath signifies our ability to seek higher truths, goodness, and beauty beyond the material world.
How does the speaker contrast Gnosticism and secularism with the biblical vision of humanity?
-The speaker contrasts Gnosticism, which sees the body as a problem, and secularism, which denies the spiritual dimension, with the biblical view that humans are both physical (from the Earth) and spiritual (animated by God's breath). Both aspects are essential in the biblical vision.
What does the Garden of Eden symbolize in the speaker's interpretation?
-The Garden of Eden symbolizes a place of abundance and flourishing, where God desires humans to fully enjoy life. The various trees represent all the wonderful aspects of life, such as philosophy, art, science, and relationships, which God freely allows humans to enjoy.
Why does God prohibit humans from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
-God prohibits humans from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because the ability to determine good and evil is God's prerogative alone. The original sin involves humans arrogating this divine role for themselves, leading to the fall from grace.
What does the speaker identify as the fundamental sin or problem in the biblical story of the Fall?
-The fundamental sin, according to the speaker, is the human desire to decide for themselves what is good and evil, rather than accepting God's authority. This act of self-determination is seen as the root cause of human misery and dysfunction.
How does the speaker relate the Supreme Court decision in Casey v. Planned Parenthood to the story of the Fall?
-The speaker relates the Supreme Court decision to the Fall by highlighting Justice Kennedy's statement that liberty involves the right to define one's own concept of existence. The speaker sees this as a modern expression of humans claiming the divine prerogative to determine good and evil.
What is the significance of Adam and Eve realizing they are naked after the Fall?
-Adam and Eve's realization of their nakedness symbolizes their uncomfortable self-consciousness and self-preoccupation, which is a consequence of their attempt to take control of good and evil. This self-awareness is linked to the fall from a more outward, God-centered life.
Why does the speaker suggest that the story of the Fall is relevant during Lent?
-The speaker suggests that the story of the Fall is relevant during Lent because it helps us understand the root cause of human unhappiness and spiritual dysfunction. Lent is a time to reflect on these deeper issues and return to the fundamentals of spiritual life.
Outlines
⚾️ Spiritual Spring Training: Returning to Fundamentals
This paragraph introduces the concept of Lent as a time for spiritual renewal, akin to spring training in sports. The speaker compares spiritual growth to athletes like Jack Nicklaus returning to the basics, emphasizing that even the greatest must revisit fundamental principles. The theme of Lent is tied to reconnecting with foundational spiritual truths, reflected in the readings during this period, starting with the story of creation and the Fall.
🌍 Made from Earth, Breathed by God: Our Dual Nature
Here, the speaker reflects on the dual nature of human beings, formed from the 'clay of the Earth' and animated by God's breath. The paragraph highlights the physical and spiritual components of humanity, affirming the goodness of both. It argues against the notion that the body is the source of sin, as certain philosophies like Gnosticism and dualism have proposed. Instead, the body is affirmed as good, created by God, while the divine breath within us represents our innate aspiration toward truth, goodness, and beauty.
🌿 The Garden of Liberty and the Forbidden Tree
This section explores the significance of God placing humans in a garden, symbolizing abundance and the permission to enjoy life’s pleasures. The paragraph highlights that God wants humanity to thrive, with all aspects of life—philosophy, art, science, and relationships—available for enjoyment. However, there is one restriction: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which symbolizes God's sole authority to define morality. The original sin is explained as humanity's attempt to take this divine prerogative for itself, a fundamental act of disobedience and arrogance.
⚖️ Liberty Redefined: The Consequence of the Fall
The speaker links the original sin of defining good and evil to modern notions of liberty, as seen in a quote from Justice Kennedy in the 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood case. The paragraph critiques this viewpoint as an extension of the Fall, where humans assume the right to determine the meaning of life and morality. This self-determination is identified as the core problem that leads to human misery, disconnection from God, and societal issues. The speaker argues that this is the root of our unhappiness and fallen nature.
🪞 Nakedness and Self-Consciousness: The Effects of Sin
This paragraph examines the immediate consequence of the Fall: Adam and Eve's realization of their nakedness, symbolizing a new self-consciousness. Rather than seeing this as mere shame, the speaker interprets it as a sign of uncomfortable self-awareness that arises when humans turn inward, making their own will the standard of morality. This self-preoccupation reflects the dysfunction of a fallen world, where humans are disconnected from the outward, God-given order of good and evil.
📖 Genesis Chapter 3: The Key to Understanding Human Misery
In this final paragraph, the speaker suggests that the root of human unhappiness can be traced back to the Fall described in Genesis 3. Lent is presented as an ideal time to reflect on this fundamental cause of human suffering. The speaker encourages a deeper exploration of the biblical story as a means of understanding why humanity is trapped in a state of spiritual and emotional dysfunction.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Lent
💡Fundamentals
💡Clay of the Earth
💡Breath of Life
💡Gnosticism
💡Secularism
💡Garden of Eden
💡Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
💡Original Sin
💡Self-Consciousness
Highlights
The beginning of Lent is described as a time for spiritual spring training, returning to fundamentals.
Like Jack Nicklaus, the best golfer returning to basics each season, Lent invites us to revisit spiritual basics.
Lent readings focus on archetypal, elemental stories that take us back to the basics of spirituality.
The creation story emphasizes that humans are made from the clay of the Earth, signifying our embodied nature.
Science supports the biblical idea that humans are connected to the Earth, as Carl Sagan said, 'We are all star stuff.'
The problem of human sin is not with our bodies or physicality, but something deeper.
Gnosticism, dualism, and other theories wrongly claim the body is sinful; the Bible affirms our bodies are good.
God breathed life into the clay of the Earth, signifying both our physical and divine nature.
The human mind seeks the truth, the will seeks goodness, and the soul seeks beauty – aspirations toward God.
Secularism denies the breath of God within us, reducing life to mere matter and dismissing divine aspirations.
The garden in the creation story symbolizes all that makes life wonderful, with God granting freedom to enjoy it.
God's prohibition of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents God as the ultimate measure of morality.
The original sin is humans arrogating to themselves the power to determine good and evil, rather than leaving that to God.
Justice Kennedy's statement in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case exemplifies the original sin of self-defining morality.
After the fall, Adam and Eve become self-conscious, symbolizing humanity's inward focus after rejecting God's moral order.
Transcripts
[Music]
well the beginning of Lent is a time for
a sort of spiritual spring training
here's what I mean um when I was playing
sports as a kid we'd begin always with
the fundamentals and even if you've been
playing for a while and you were quite
good the coach would still during you
know spring training for baseball or
summertime for football would bring you
back to the
fundamentals I think of uh Jack Nicholas
a greatest go forever uh at the height
of his powers he was the best golfer in
the world he would still begin the
season by flying to uh see his friend
Jack grout who was his childhood
instructor and Jack rout would take the
best golfer in the world back through
the fundamentals of the grip and stance
and alignment and swing and so it's
always good for us spiritually to go
back to the basics
is a time when we do that and that's why
the readings during Lent are really good
they're real archetypal
Elemental well the first reading for the
first Sunday of Lent um has to do with
the creation of human beings and the
Fall From Grace in the garden there's no
better place to look for the
fundamentals of the spiritual stuff than
that story here's the first thing we
hear it says the Lord God formed the
first man out of the clay of the Earth
Earth and breathe into his nostrils a
breath of life very important claim now
first of all God made us from the clay
of the earth that means that we are um
embodied realities our bodies indeed
come from the the molecules and minerals
and stuff of the earth we with our
scientific perspective know better than
biblical people how embodied we are how
grounded we are in the planet wasn't it
um Carl Sean said ultimately we're all
star stuff because all the the you know
basic atoms and molecules and so on were
were created in the furnace of ancient
stars that eventually found their way
into the planets and so on so we are
indeed made from the clay of the
earth spiritually speaking it's very
important because the problem that we
have and I'll get to that we do have a
problem but it's not with our bodies
it's not our physicality that's the
problem now there are a lot of theories
that you know
uh manism and gnosticism and dualism and
and puritanism up and down the centuries
that make exactly that claim and the
idea there is to get away from the
Fallen body the body is the problem our
emotions our sexuality our passions
that's not biblical that's not biblical
the Bible affirms that God makes us from
the clay of the earth and everything
that God makes is
good that's not the problem the second
thing is we're made from the clay of the
earth and God has breathed into our
nostrils the breath of life there's that
great the Hebrew term is ruach breath or
wind or air uh Greek has that as pneuma
hence our pneumatic tires uh Latin has
it as spiritus
right God has breathed into this earthy
stuff his life it's very important isn't
it there is in us an aspiration to God
our minds that seek not just particular
truths but the truth itself our our
Wills that seek not just particular
Goods but goodness itself our souls that
won't rest until they come to the
beautiful itself there is in these
bodies of clay something of an
aspiration upward toward God if
gnosticism and dualism negate the first
part of that secularism negates the
second part what we have today on
display secularism that life is
reducible to matter what I've described
there is the aspirations upward toward
God are reduced to the level of
psychological quirks or or wish
fulfilling delusions secularism denies
this Breath of God that animates us
biblical Vision in its genius has both
very clearly both the clay of the earth
and the breath of the Divine Life are in
US here's Second Great Insight now for
from the story God takes his first human
beings and he places them it says in a
garden a garden full of delightful
things to see and taste and experience
he gives them practically free reign eat
of all the trees in the garden save one
and I'll get to that but first look at
the extraordinary
permission God wants his human creatures
to flourish in this Garden there's
nothing of the ancient mythological idea
of the gods and human beings in a
rivalrous relationship the true God who
makes everything from nothing can't be
threatened by his creation he needs
nothing from it demands nothing from it
for his own you know well-being and
therefore God's Delight is that we be
fully
Alive we're in a garden not in a
desert more to it the church fathers saw
this all the
trees and were given Liberty to eat of
all these trees
represent all that makes life
wonderful philosophy and Art and
Science stimulating conversation
friendship politics sexuality everything
that makes life wonderful is represented
in the Trees of the garden and God says
eat of them all eat of them all this is
not a god who's trying to limit the
human project but rather the one who
says your being alive fully is my glory
that's the biblical God
okay so how about the prohibition we do
hear that they are prohibited from
eating from One
Tree which is the tree of the knowledge
of Good and Evil what does that mean
well God is the unconditioned good
therefore God is in his own being the
Criterion of Good and
Evil God is the measure of Good and Evil
in his own being therefore this
prerogative belongs to God Alone to know
good and evil what's the original sin
the original problem is arrogating to
ourselves the prerogative of determining
good and evil when our Wills become the
Criterion and the measure rather than
God that I would submit to it's very
it's very subtle point it's not really
so much a particular offense it's not as
though you know murders the original sin
or thievery or adultery it's something
more subtle and and more fundamental
than any of the particular sins it's the
move of arrogating to
ourselves the prerogative of determining
good and evil that's the original
Calamity from which human misery has
followed as surely as night follows the
day now if you're tempted to say this is
just a lot of abstract theological
musing let me submit to you something
I've discussed before the famous um
decision of the US Supreme Court in the
matter of Casey versus Planned
Parenthood so writing for the majority
in that famous case Justice Kennedy
opined as follows now listen at the
heart of Liberty is the right to Define
one's own concept of existence of
meaning of the universe of the mystery
of human life that's the US Supreme
Court
1992 frankly I can't imagine a clearer
expr
of eating of the tree of the knowledge
of Good and Evil than that statement
that it belongs to the very nature of
Liberty My Liberty to determine the
meaning of everything of my life of the
mystery of the
universe that's the arrogating to
ourselves the Divine prerogative that
the Bible identifies as the fundamental
problem and look the Supreme Court gives
formal legal expression to what's
generally taken talk to most people to
as as the truth of things how many
people especially young people would say
something like look you know right or
wrong that's a matter of my personal
decision before you get to any
particular sin any particular offense
that's the fundamental Calamity the
fundamental twisting or dysfunction that
the Bible identifies as the
problem it's very interesting to me that
right after the fall Adam and Eve
realized that they are naked and they
seek to cover themselves now I wouldn't
read it primarily as a question of Shame
I'd read it rather as an intense and
deeply
uncomfortable
self-consciousness see think if the good
is outside of your own will and
experience the good is is something that
you discern in God and in the world that
reflects God's wisdom then you tend to
be non self-conscious you tend to be
looking outward but the minute your will
and your freedom become the determining
uh elements in Good and Evil then
there's this tendency to turn awkwardly
and uncomfortably inward the the
clothing of Adam and Eve is a sign of
their
self-consciousness their self-
preoccupation and that I think is on
display every place in the Fallen World
so the bottom line is um you know we're
all unhappy we live in the world that's
Fallen that's that's followed from this
original fall if you want to find out
and lent's a great time to do it why are
we so unhappy to search out the deepest
roots of that I can't think of a better
place to look than in this third chapter
of the Book of Genesis
[Music]
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