O Happy Fault O Necessary Sin of Adam

Easter Vigil of the Holy Night

O truly necessary sin of Adam,
Destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault that earned so great,
So glorious a Redeemer

Do you recognise this line? You should. It is found in the Exsúltet (the Easter Proclamation) sung at the beginning of this Vigil service. Perhaps, most people would have missed it unless you caught the oxymoronic contradiction found in two expressions: “necessary sin” and “happy fault”. If we consider sin as abhorrent to God and something which separates us from Him, what ‘sin’ could be considered ‘necessary’? How could any ‘fault’ or mistake be considered happy? Why, then, does the Church use these strange expressions?

The Latin expression felix culpa (happy fault) is derived from the writings of St Augustine, whose personal life was testimony to the truth of this maxim. In order for St Augustine to have been one of the greatest converts to Christianity, one of its greatest theologians and pastor, he had to start off being a great sinner. This was obviously the case: here was a man who had been schooled by his own father to frequent brothels since adolescence. As an adult, he would keep a woman in concubinage, what we would describe as a ‘sex slave’ in modern terms. Then he delved into and experimented with various philosophies and religions where he sought to make himself feel better about himself despite his lifestyle. St Augustine was truly a great sinner. But then grace touched him, moved him and finally transformed him into one of the Church’s greatest saints. In speaking about the source of original sin, Augustine writes, “For God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist.”

What St Augustine meant here was that the Fall of Adam was from one point of view, fortunate, since without it humankind could not have experienced the unsurpassable joy of the redemption. How did he make this leap from sin to grace? If Adam and Eve never fell, Christ would never have needed to come. And so God allowed the loss of perfect human bliss through the original sin of Adam and Eve in order to bring about a greater, divine bliss for humanity (cf. 2 Peter 1:4)! From Adam’s sin came the glory of Jesus Christ. The remedy dished out by God goes far beyond restoring us to that Edenic state! God never goes backwards. He's not taking us back to Eden. He’s making light-years leap forward!

If you are not convinced at this argument, the whole of scripture stands as irrefutable evidence. By eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve are now prohibited from tasting the fruit of the Tree of Life which would have guaranteed them immortality. But here comes the ‘felix culpa’ bit – If man had not been denied immortality at this stage, he would still have to suffer an eternity of sin, an eternity of the effects of sin – alienation, suffering, pain, etc. In popular culture, vampires view their deathlessness as a curse, not as a blessing. Death would be the welcomed relief to a never ending existence of pain, misery and lovelessness.

Still not convinced? Well let’s look at other events in the Bible. If humanity had not sin by attempting to build the Tower of Babel, we would not be blessed with the myriad of cultures, civilisations, languages that have emerged throughout our human history. If Joseph had not been betrayed by his brothers and sold off to slavery, he would not have been their saviour, when the land was struck by famine. If Moses had not run away from Egypt as an act of cowardice, he would not have been chosen by God to lead his people to freedom. If David had not committed a transgression and adultery with Uriah’s wife, Solomon would not have been born. If the Temple had not been destroyed, the Church, the Body of Christ, who is the New and Perfect Temple, would have remained a dream. If Judas had not betrayed Jesus, Christ would not have been able to redeem the world through His sacrifice on the Cross.

While God never actively wills sin and disobedience, He made the option possible in order that we could freely choose to love Him instead. Adam and Eve's decision was never unknown to God, nor was the outcome. From all eternity God knew that His rational creatures would choose to rebel against Him, and His divine plan incorporated Adam's sin from the very foundations of the world. Eden was not Plan A and the Incarnation was not Plan B. God becoming Man so that we could participate in the divine life of God through grace was the idea all along! The Incarnation and the death and resurrection of Christ was always Plan A! Through, Baptism we are inserted into this great plan, this great mystery of redemption. We will “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). This vastly exceeds what God would have done for unfallen man. The beauty and perfection of Eden pales against the beauty and perfection of heaven.

All too often we run from our mistakes, reject them or simply live in denial of them. The failed work is quickly set aside. And worse, all too often initial mistakes, initial failures discourage us and prevent us from moving forward. The Paschal Mystery, the Mystery which Good Friday and Easter reveals, demands that we learn to recognise that hidden within every mistake, every human error, every shortcoming, every failure and even in the greatest of falls is the seed of the resurrection – where even sin can be transformed by a single moment of grace. Indeed, rather than cast aside His fallen creation, God reaches into the failure and tragedy of human sinfulness to redeem us. This is the Mystery which claims us in Christ and the power of this same Mystery is what heals us in the sacraments. “O Happy Fault”; “O truly necessary sin of Adam” …. “that earned so great, so glorious a redeemer!”