Oh Happy Fault
One
The Words at the Easter Vigil
The greatest Mass of the year is the Easter Vigil. Have you ever been? There’s the blessing of the fire outside, and then the procession of the candles inside. There can be up to nine readings before the homily. The baptism of adult converts takes place that night. And the priest or the deacon sings a long hymn of celebration, called the Exultet.
During that Exultet, the faithful hear these very strange words, “Oh happy fault, oh necessary sin of Adam, that won for us so great a redeemer.” Listen to it again, ‘Oh happy fault, oh necessary sin…”
What on earth does that mean? Happy fault? Isn’t a fault by definition something tragic, something that brings misery? Necessary sin? What possible thing could sin be necessary for?
Two
The sin isn’t good, and it doesn’t produce good
Before we explain what those words mean, we have to be clear on what they don’t mean. Sin is never a good thing. Sin is the essence of evil, and evil is by definition the opposite of good. So sin can’t be good. Also, sin doesn’t cause goodness.
Darkness can’t cause light. Death can’t cause life. Emptiness never causes fullness. So we can’t ever do something sinful in order to bring about something morally good. Sin and moral goodness are contrary categories. They are diametrically opposed. Sin, in itself, is an attack on moral goodness. Sin is always sin, it’s always wrong. Sin never causes good. It only causes us to lose good – and sometimes lose it forever.
Three
The Good We Missed
Not only does sin never contribute to goodness, it takes goodness away. It destroys goodness. And, even when we repent of our sins, that initial opportunity to do good is gone forever. We don’t know the great things Adam and Eve might have done for God’s glory if they hadn’t listened to the Serpent. And we don’t know what would have happened if we’d been better parents, better spouses, better Christians.
We don’t know how much difference we could have made, how much happier we, and the people in our lives would have been if we’d just tried a little harder to be good and holy.
So whenever we sin, and whenever we think about our past sins, we should be sorry. We should repent, and wish we hadn’t done the evil we’ve done, or wish we had done the good we should have done, but didn’t. And yet. And yet God does bring good out of evil. He can make the remembrance of our past sins a source of joy, and gratitude, and not just of sorrow.
Four
The Great Manifestation of God’s Love
Sin never causes good but it does provide the opportunity for goodness to show its greatest power. If a wife is debilitatingly sick, with some crushing illness, that’s not a good thing in itself. But it does allow her husband to show his love for her more dramatically than if she were always healthy and cheerful and full of energy. A loving husband will be sad that his wife is sick, but he will rejoice in being able to care for her, serve her, wait on her hand and foot, and tell her how much he loves her throughout.
And the same goes for humanity. Our sinfulness is sad and ugly but it gives God the greatest possible opportunity to show how fervently and how generously He loves us.
That’s why Adam’s sin is a happy fault and why it was, in this way, a necessary fault. Because we would never know how fiercely and devotedly God loves us unless we could see Him loving us at our worst. As St. Paul says, “God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
And think of how that sick woman will love the man who cares for her in her convalescence. She will be sorry that she caused him to have to work so hard, and sacrifice so much, on her behalf. But she will rejoice in her husband’s love, in her husband’s goodness. She will be glad that her illness provided the occasion for him to show his love, and for her to know, and to see and to feel, what a wonderful man she married.
It’s the same with our sins. It’s awful that we’ve been so difficult towards God and that He’s had to sacrifice so much for us. But oh, look how much He loves us! What a happy thing it is that He loves us so much, despite everything. What a blessing! What a good God to turn our sins, the cause of so much misery, into the occasion for so much grace and gratitude.
Five
Before we sin / after we sin
The evil of sin in itself and the good that God brings out of it, these are the two aspects of the human story. And we have to keep these two aspects in mind at different times.
When we’re tempted to sin, we have to remember how awful sin is, how much damage it causes, and how it robs us forever of the chance to live this one life as fully and effectively as we could have. It takes away a precious opportunity to serve the Lord and help others get to heaven, an opportunity we’ll never have again. That’s what we have to think about when we’re tempted to sin.
But after we sin, then we have to rejoice, not in our sin, but in this opportunity for God to show how much He loves us.
Please, Lord, let our reflection on how good you have been to us in our sinfulness be a source of rejoicing in you and loving you all the more. Then our past sins really will have become a “happy fault”
Suggested Resolutions:
Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.
This week, practice redirecting your mentality towards sin so that your focus is on God’s mercy and the opportunity to grow closer to Him.
Likewise, when others fail you, try to remember that every fall is an opportunity to help them up again and to grow closer through your conflict.