Original Sin as the Source of Inner Turmoil and Disorder. The Possibility of Healing the Condition Damaged by Sin

Although I wrote to you to think it over and promised myself to discuss the matter—namely, where the seed of inner turmoil and disorder in us comes from—it is already known, and you know it as well. There is therefore nothing to reason out; one need only recall what we believe about this. We believe that such a seed was not placed in our nature by the Creator when He created man, but was introduced after creation—by the power of the fall of our first ancestors, who, by transgressing the commandment, damaged and disordered our nature, and transmitted it in this damaged and disordered state to their descendants as well, that is, to the entire human race.

So it has passed to us as well and serves as the cause of the turmoil and disorder within us, from which all disorders arise outwardly too—in the private life of each individual, and in family and social life. That is why this disorder, although we receive it in seed together with our birth, is not native to us, does not belong to human nature, is not so essential a part of it that without it a person would no longer be human—on the contrary, it is precisely without it that a person is a genuine human being. It is our sickness, and only through its removal can we appear sound, in the form in which we ought to be by nature as it came from the hands of the Creator. I recall your desire to stand at the level of human dignity. Heal within yourself the aforementioned sickness—and you will become such.

Remember that our inner turmoil and disorder are innate in us, but not native to our nature—they do not form an essential part of our nature, but have pressed themselves in between the natural parts and throw them into disorder, both in the proper activity of each part and in their mutual relations. If this were native, its presence would not produce the suffering and anguish that we experience from it. What is native constitutes the joy of life, while what is contrary to nature wearies and torments it.

On the other hand, if this were native to our nature, then anyone who appeared free and clear of it would no longer be human. But we know a Man who was perfectly free of it and was yet human—a genuine human being. And we also know that all who are clothed in Him receive the possibility to purify themselves as He too ”is pure” (1 Jn. 3:3), and to become like Him.

I say again: hold firmly to the conviction that our disorder is innate in us but not native to our nature—hold to it and keep that conviction strong. This conviction will sustain your zeal for healing this sickness. If it is not native to our nature, then there is the possibility of healing it. And with this hope, who would not be filled with courage to actually heal himself?

Our nature in its pure state is worthy of all love. Even the Angels gaze upon it with love and wonder when it appears as such. Should we not desire to see it in ourselves—and not in others, but in ourselves? Indeed, all our happiness and well-being consist precisely in being freed from this sickness. For when it is gone, what will prevent us from being in a blessed state and feeling ourselves to be so? If, on the contrary, this sickness were native to our nature, it could never be healed. It would remain forever, no matter how much one labored to drive it out. Accept this thought—and your hands will drop, as you say to yourself: so be it, that is evidently how things are. And that is precisely that ruinous ”despair” into which those who settle themselves deliver themselves ”to licentiousness for the practice of every kind of impurity” (Eph. 4:19).

And once more I repeat: hold to the conviction that our disorder is not native to us, and do not listen to those who say: what is there to discuss—that is how we were made, one cannot do anything with oneself. We were not made that way, and if we take ourselves in hand as we should, we will be able to do something with ourselves.

All this I explain to you so that you may be stirred with zeal to take yourself in hand and not allow yourself to fall again into those torments you experienced—but on the contrary, to cut off within yourself the very possibility of them. How to achieve this must be considered.