History: The Heartbreaking Revelation of Original Sin

If anyone has studied the History of Western Civilization or World History, they know what we mean by heartbreak. Ever since the fall, man’s activities have fraught with messiness, evil, man treating his neighbor as expendable and lesser than himself, and ultimately man has gone from sin to sin searching for its final fulfillment but always stopping short of it at the expense of others and himself. At nearly every turn in our own lives, we find struggle, pain, and confusion. We need a savior.

Church teaching often speaks of man’s desire for God and it cannot overstate man’s need for Him. We are very contingent and finite beings. If we don’t properly nourish our souls, minds, and bodies, we bring a certain kind of death upon ourselves. Clearly, these are interrelated but the physical allows for the mental and the spiritual time to health, such that as long as the physical has cared for we have the opportunity to grow, convert, and receive God’s help to heaven. What does our health require? Constant and almost scrupulous upkeep, we must be careful of what we eat in the long and short term, that our consumption may not hasten death. Likewise, it is with the mental and spiritual; we must be cautious of our convictions and actions or we can lose everything we have the opportunity to gain. What is our health and existence contingent upon? All of our ancestors, God’s love, God’s creation of the present moment, love of parents, care of others, others regulating their mental and spiritual health, and these are just a few. God provides in these and countless other ways. There is truly no way for man to comprehend what it must have been like to offer the best thing ever, Jesus. The Father’s only begotten Son, the only to be manifested in creation which was consubstantial with Him. To watch as man destroys not just the Best Thing but the Best Person. 

Since the fall, man has made such tragic decisions. Indeed, there is nothing we can do without God down to our very existence, the forces which maintain atomic structure, etc. Providence in speaking of the physical alone is already infinite. European man had felt is just to slaughter in the name of salvation, take that which God had give to others down to the last thing, the space to live. If one reads history at all and imagines oneself a participant in such an event, one cannot help but feel nauseous. Thus, it is a near-universal opinion that man is messed up. The hell man gives to his fellow man is abominable and beyond words.

In conclusion, what has happened to man since the fall was/is comprehensive, heartbreaking, and unable to be overstated. However, what man is called to is every bit as astonishing and beyond comprehension (truly requires God’s help). As we look to the past and see only destruction and despair, we must be supremely thankful for our existence, sure, but especially that it wasn’t/isn’t worse. It is not a thing of optimism that we should be grateful for what we are given for if it is of God we know it to be for our good. Yet, we must be moved to pray, when we reflect on history and the present times, and to not be afraid/anxious about reality but at peace with it since it was permitted by God for our good. If there is anything that is not ideal we must surrender it to the Lord, pray for those involved, and work every moment of our life to act in accord with God's grace and will, that we may go forth and make disciples of all nations.

O God I have sinned against Thee,

Contrition holds me in agony.

I weep for what I have done,

I surrender my sins every one.

Thank you, Lord, for protecting me from worse,

My heart is broken that I have left Thee.

I confess my wrongs and repent of their hurt,

But most of all because they offend Thee.

Mistakes have been made

But I would not trade Thy light for shade.

Broken in countless ways I be

Dear Most Loving Jesus heal me!