It's been more than two weeks since my last post. I apologize. Lesson plannings and the facts of family life have caught up with me more than I ever thought.
As I've been writing my Scripture curriculum, I've been thinking about the Fiats of those who came before us. It strikes me how much the Bible says about following God's plan without always speaking of it directly.
Take Adam, for example. He was the first man, our first father, and he was also the first sinner. He didn't do a particularly good job of following God's will, at least, not in what is recorded, but the Church acknowledges him as a saint, so he must have turned back to God!
That brings up an important point about following God's will. There are only two people in all of history (and pre-history) who gave a perfect Fiat. The rest of us fail, often and miserably, to do God's will. Yet, we are still called to be saints, and to do that, we need to remember our sins and to be sorry, to turn back to God and repent, and to resolve once again to follow God's will. For all that, Adam is a truly holy example to us, even if we don't know the story of his repentance.
Pax,
Micah
Are we sure the Church considers Adam a Saint?
ReplyDeleteThe tradition has always considered all the patriarchs to be saints. Sacred Tradition includes Adam in the "limbus patrium," which Christ called, "Abraham's bosom," which was distinct from what we call hell. Everyone in the limbus patrium was freed to enter heaven after Christ died. Some of the Church's ancient sacred art also includes Christ taking Adam by the hand and freeing him from the limbus patrium.
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