From the opening pages of Genesis to the digital headlines of the twenty-first century, humanity’s story repeats a single unlearned lesson: separation from God is never the answer. This is not ancient myth or abstract theology. It is the lived experience of every soul.

The Pattern of Sin

At the heart of every fall lies pride — the root of every sin — and concupiscence, the disordered inclination toward sin inherited from the Fall. St. Thomas Aquinas maps the interior mechanics with clinical precision in the Summa Theologica (I-II, qq. 77–78). Original sin wounds the soul: the intellect darkens, the will weakens, and the passions rebel.

The pattern opens in Paradise. Adam and Eve, offered intimate friendship with God, preferred the serpent’s whisper: ‘You will be like gods’ (Gen 3:5). Pride turned the will from Creator to creature. Jesus enters history as the New Adam. In the wilderness He faced the identical triad: flesh (stones into bread), world (all kingdoms for one act of worship), devil (cast yourself down) — and He refused every suggestion (Mt 4).

The Consequences of Sin

Today the separation is measurable. Belief in Christ’s divinity, the Resurrection, and even the existence of hell has plummeted. Families fracture, nations enshrine what Scripture calls abomination, and millions of the baptized live as practical atheists. Screens stimulate the passions around the clock. The intellect calls evil good; the will chooses comfort; the passions clamor for instant gratification.

Yet the soul knows one thing with crystalline certainty: objective Truth. When the soul aligned with God’s will encounters that Truth, it stands affirmed and experiences peace. But the soul not following God’s will, when confronted with His Truth, recoils like a serpent in the grass and strikes at the bearer.

Original reporting: Must Read Alaska (Anchorage) — read the source article.