There are many persons in the world who believe that human beings are merely animals of a higher type than the other animals on earth, and like them are destined to perish entirely with death. Against this materialistic view the Catholic Church holds the doctrine that every human being has a spiritual soul that is like to God Himself a soul that will never die but will live for all eternity. Every human soul is directly created by God.
The Bible describes in great detail the beginning of the human race. God created a man, named Adam, forming his body from the dust of earth and creating his soul. Shortly afterward God made Eve from a rib of Adam, whose wife she was to be. Then the Almighty blessed the pair as husband and wife, bidding them: "Increase and multiply" (Genesis 1, 28) . God bestowed on Adam and Eve wonderful privileges. They dwelt in a beautiful garden; they were free from inordinate inclinations to sin; they were preserved from suffering; they were destined never to die, but after a space of time on earth, to be taken, body and soul, into heaven. Above all, they were endowed with the precious gift of sanctifying grace, that made them the beloved children of God.
It was God's plan that these privileges should be transmitted from Adam to all his descendants. However, He made this dependent on the faithfulness of Adam in obeying His command not to eat the fruit of a particular tree. Adam disobeyed; and hence lost these precious gifts for himself and for all his descendants. Eve also sinned and lost the privileges for herself. There was no injustice on God's part in depriving Adam's descendants of these privileges because of his sin. The favors He gave our first parents were purely gratuitous; our first parents had no right to them. Hence, there was no injustice on the part of God in withholding them from Adam's descendants. It was as if a wealthy man told a poor man he could live in a splendid house on his property and pass it on to his descendants, if he would obey a certain command; if the poor man disobeyed, and accordingly lost the fine residence for himself and for his children, the rich man would be doing them no wrong by depriving them of the house.
The entire human race is descended from Adam and Eve; hence, we all enter the world deprived of the gifts we should have had if Adam had not sinned The deprivation of sanctifying grace, called original sin, brings with it the necessity of submitting to suffering and to death. This is the significance of the words spoken by God to Adam after his sin, and repeated to each of the faithful on Ash Wednesday when the priest places ashes on his brow "remember, man, that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19). Yet, through the goodness of God we can recover sanctifying grace and even though we are not restored entirely to the original state of our first parents, who were free from suffering and death and inordinate inclinations to sin, we can make these penalties of Adam's transgression the occasions of practicing virtue.
Nowadays many persons, claiming that man is descended from an animal, such as an ape, reject the account of creation given in the Bible. We admit that God could have brought the human race into existence in this way as regards the body of man; and if the evolutionary theory to this extent were ever proved, we should have no difficulty in admitting it. The soul of man, however, can come into being only by the direct act of the Creator.
Our Blessed Lord, since He is God, could have no original sin. Furthermore, original sin is transmitted to an infant by its father when he shares it life, and Our Lord had no earthly father. Moreover, it is a doctrine of the Catholic faith that His Blessed Mother, Mary, on account of her are great dignity as Mother of God, was preserved from original sin in the very first moment of her existence. This great privilege is known as her Immaculate Conception.
Catholics should have a clear idea of the meaning of the Immaculate conception, since many persons confuse it with the virginal conception of Jesus Christ, which was an entirely different privilege of our Lady. God spoke of the Immaculate Conception immediately after the sin of our first parents, when He promised a Redeemer, and added that the Mother of the Redeemer would be at perpetual enmity with the devil, the author of sin: "I will put enmities between thee (the devil) and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head" (Genesis 3:15). This doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception is contained also in the Tradition of the Church, which has always attributed to Mary the fullest possible measure of holiness and freedom from sin. The feast of the Immaculate Conception is a holyday of obligation, celebrated on December 8th. Moreover, Mary Immaculate is the Patroness of the United States of America.
RESOLUTION: Resolve to call on our Blessed Mother in time of temptation with the prayer that honors her Immaculate Conception: "Mary, without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee"; (Indulgence: 300 days; Plenary indulgence under usual conditions. S.P. Ap., April 15, 1932).