Q. And by the way which exactly were the preternatural gifts?
A. Impassibility (freedom from pain), immortality (freedom from death), integrity (freedom from concupiscence/disordered desires) and infused knowledge (freedom from ignorance in matters essential for happiness).
Q. OK. My original question was why does God want us to deny ourselves? Then you introduced that whole story about preternatural gifts. So now my question is what do the preternatural gifts have to do with God making things difficult by laying out a commandment or with why we have to deny ourselves?
A. Patience hombre! We're getting there! You did ask for the long answer, didn't you?
Q. I'm beginning to regret that 😜
A. Ha! So remember that American I had mentioned earlier?
Q. Uh huh...
A. He also writes that the entire human race was meant to inherit everything Father Adam and Mother Eve had whether by nature or by "preter-nature".
Q. But we didn't.
A. Yes.
Q. Because of...
A. ...Original Sin.
Q. Explain, please.
A. That American author explains it better: “Just one thing was required of Adam in order that he might confirm these gifts, and make these gifts secure to his descendants – he must, by a free act of choice, give his love irrevocably to God. It was for this that God made all human beings: that they might give glory to God by their love for God. And their love for God was to be, in a sense, the coin by which they would make secure the supernatural destiny of face-to-face union with God in heaven.
It is the very nature of genuine love to make a complete surrender of self to the one who is loved. In this life, there is only one way in which love for God can prove itself: by the doing of God’s will, by obedience to him. That is why God gave to Adam and Eve a commandment, one single commandment. They must not eat of the fruit that grew on a certain tree… But there had to be a commandment so that there could be an act of obedience; there had to be an act of obedience so that there could be a proof of love, a free and deliberate choosing of God in preference to self.”
Q. Really!?
A. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Q. Very!
To be continued...
9th October 2016