Guilt Of Original Sin

[Era Might]

Pope John Paul II said that "original sin in Adam's descendants has not the character of personal guilt," and "Lumen Gentium" says that Our Lady was "preserved free from all guilt of original sin." Does anyone know in what sense original sin includes guilt?

[withouthavingseen]

[quote name='Era Might' post='1439107' date='Dec 28 2007, 12:03 PM']Pope John Paul II said that "original sin in Adam's descendants has not the character of personal guilt," and "Lumen Gentium" says that Our Lady was "preserved free from all guilt of original sin." Does anyone know in what sense original sin includes guilt?[/quote]

My sense is that in LG, when it speaks of the guilt of original sin, they mean something along the lines of involvement in it, being enmeshed with it. When the late Holy Father was writing, he differentiated that from the idea of culpability or responsibility, which he seems to characterize with the term "personal guilt".

So we are all (except the Blessed Virgin Mary) born into the "guilt" of original sin, that is, we are all born into the state of having it, or being enmeshed in it - we are born alienated from God. But none of us are, in infancy, actually culpable for anything, nor deserving of punishment as such - we have done nothing wrong.

We will all of us, of course (except for the Blessed Virgin Mary) begin to sin, and so take on as our own personal trophy the guilt of original sin, and become guilt of actual sin. This presents a nice, fine philosophical distinction. "Original" refers to our origins, whereas "actual" refers either to the act, or to the completion or carrying out of a sinful act. "Original sin" then is alienation from our first instant owing to our human origins and ancestors. Mary was spared this humiliation; in us it is overcome by baptism. "Actual sin" is the alienation of God put into concrete acts, or crystallized in particular moments - things we normally call sins. In infancy, we are incapable of them. The lasting effects of original sin, the scars it leaves on us even after baptism, make it very hard for us to avoid actual sin for very long. Mary, free of original sin, had a much easier time overcoming all the same temptations that we all face on a daily basis.

Does that make sense?