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St. Paul University Surigao

St. Paul University System
8400 Surigao City, Philippines

CHRISTIAN FORMATION SERVICES

Religious Education Program
1st Semester, AY 2022-2023

OBE TEACHING-LEARNING MODULE

Course Code : REED 101

Course Title : REVELATION AND FAITH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Class Schedule : Block 3 (8:00-11-30PM)
Room No. : SP 401
Professor : ANNABELLE S. DUA

Instruction: This will be your Independent Learning

Activities from Oct. 25, 26 and November 03, 2022.
Answer all the Activities of the Module 3, and it shall
be submitted on November 07, 2022.

Course Description :

This course serves as the foundation of all first year college students. It provides the
students the opportunity to explore God’s constant revelation of His love to human kind and the salvation
history which culminates on Jesus’ birth (the fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation and the perfection of
God’s revelation); inculcates to the students the values and deep faith in God as their concrete response to
God’s salvific revelation. It also forms them to become socially-competent persons in their fields; and
commits them to the service of God, others, and society. Integrated in this course are activities such as
group dynamics, reflection and journal writing, active participation in religious activities, and the application
of faith and the basic Christian values learned through community involvement.

MODULE 3
THE HUMAN FALL AND THE PROMISE OF SALVATION

THE PAULINIAN ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

Ethical, Paulinian LEADERS and PROFESSIONALS

1.1 Consistently adhere to acknowledged moral standards of decision-making and behavior in their personal,
professional and organizational affairs;

1.2 Declare and affirm the values and principles of honesty, transparency and fairness in their professional lives and
endeavors;

1.4 Articulate, advocate and exemplify Paulinian ideals and values in their private and professional lives nurtured by
prayer and a deep relationship with God;

AFFIRMATION

“As a Christ-centered Paulinian, I am a Cutting-Edge, Resilient VISIONARY and INNOVATOR, demonstrating my

creativity and charism.”

TOPIC The First Fall and Original Sin :The Story of Adam and Eve
HOURS : 3.5 Hrs.
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St. Paul University Surigao
St. Paul University System
8400 Surigao City, Philippines

LEARNING Doctrine: Elucidate God’s saving act for all people in history,
OUTCOMES Moral: Acknowledge God’s ways of saving people,
Worship: Discover in prayer God’s salvific actions in history.
:
Teaching Learning
Activities
Activity 1: Read the text from the bible and answer the following questions below.

A.) Sacred Scripture: GENESIS 3:1-24- The Fall

Answer the following Questions:
Who is Adam in the story?
Who is Eve in the story?
What kind of life given to them?
How did the serpent tempt Adam and Eve?
What is the consequence of temptation?
Why is there sin and evil in the world?
What does original sin mean?
How does the church teaching explain on original sin?
What do you mean by concupiscence?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
THE FALL

If God is good and all of His creation is good, why is there evil in this world? Why is there so much suffering? Where
does evil come from?
It is the story of man and woman sharing the same nature and dignity, as woman has been taken from man, truly
fitting helpmate of man. They enjoyed God’s superabundant blessings in the garden of Eden.
They were in his friendship characterized by closeness and familiarity. “They were both naked yet they felt no
shame”(2:25) This means that man and woman were in the state of innocence. They had no cause to feel shame.
They partook of all the bounty of the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The moment
they are of its fault, they would die. To die here meant to be cut off, driven from the garden, excluded from the
friendship and communion with God.

Genesis 3:1:24

This account was clearly a symbolic story. The author of Genesis used this story to describe the reality of sin and
evil. Even the name Adam was not the name of one particular historical person named Adam. Adam in the Hebrew
language meant simply “man”. Eve meant “the living one”. So Adam and Eve in this symbolical account were the
symbolical representatives of the origin of the human race.

Vs. 3:1-6

Jewish and Christian interpretations, always saw in the serpent the ancient enemy called Satan. These verses
showed how the serpent tempted the woman. He first distorted the command of God. He said that they would not die
if they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In fact if they of the fruit, they would be like God,
in their knowing good and evil.

To be like God: this was the root of the temptation. God created man and woman unto his image and likeness, but
according to God’s ways and his means. The temptation was to be like God, independent of God and according to
one’s own ways and means. The woman, seeing how pleasing the fruit was to the eyes, good to eat, and very
desirable for the knowledge it could give, ate of the fruit and gave some to her husband to eat.

Vs. 3:7-13

The author of Genesis showed in these verses the consequences of sin. After they ate the forbidden fruit, they lost
their innocence. They realized they were naked and were ashamed. So they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves coverings. Gone were their friendship and intimacy with God, for now they, afraid of him, went hiding
from his sight. Gone were their oneness and communion with God. And gone too were their oneness and
communion with one another. The man blamed the woman and woman blamed the serpent.
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St. Paul University Surigao
St. Paul University System
8400 Surigao City, Philippines

Vs. 14-15

The snake was cursed, condemned to crawl on its belly, eat dirt and be forever the enemy of the woman and all her
offspring's. The divine condemnation of the serpent, was a prophecy of Satan’s defeat, a hope for humankind. We
saw the picture of a man crushing the head of the serpent, but the serpent’s fangs, however, were fixed in the man’s
heel, waiting to wound it. (“He shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel.”) This meant that the
weapons of evil would constantly to attack human beings.

Vs. 16-20

With death (which means separation from God) came pain and suffering. Childbearing which was essentially part of a
Woman would no longer be equal with men, as God created them to be. This suggested that the woman’s inferiority
and subordination to man were not intended by God but were the results of sin.

The man was not cursed but the earth was cursed because of man’s misdeeds. Now his tilling and tending of the
earth would be difficult. Thorn and thistles would grow on the very ground that he would till. Thus, he would endure a
hard life until he returned to the earth where he came from.

Vs. 21-24

The man was not cursed but the earth was cursed because of man’s misdeeds. Now his tilling and tending of the
earth would be difficult. Thorn and thistles would grow on the very ground that he would till. Thus, he would endure a
hard life until he returned to the earth where he came from.

Punishment was not the last word. In a very subtle but significant gesture, God’s clothing them was a sign of covering
their shame, thus was a sign of healing and reconciliation. Having sinned by eating of the forbidden fruit in the
garden, they were removed by God from the occasion of further sinning by sending them out of the garden to find
their way in to the ordinary world.

The story of the fall, in its rich use of symbols, showed us that sin and evil did not come from God but resulted from
the free choice of human beings. The story of sin in Genesis continued in Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (4:1-16);
in the widespread sin of the human populace in the story of the Tower of Babel (10:32-11:9). All these stories showed
the progression of sin and the growing separation of God and humankind. In Genesis 12, God reached out to
humankind, in his call to Abraham, that he might once again be a God in their midst and of their hearts.

B.) Church Teaching: CFC 373, 374

In rebelling against God, man and woman destroyed their original harmony with:
-each other (“they realized they were
naked”),
others (Cain’s murder of his brother
Abel),
the community (Tower of Babel),
nature (“cursed be the ground…”) (cf. CCC 400)
Finally, since man and his wife were now excluded from partaking of the fruit of the tree of life (Gen.3:22-24), death
would be theirs, “For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return” (Gen.3:19)

CFC 374

The Genesis narrative presents three moments with which we are all very familiar: temptation, sin and judgment. But
we must not imagine that the author of Genesis is present in the Garden of Eden. Rather, his account is a divinely
inspired interpretation of the situation of sin in the world of his own day. Where all this evil does came from? What is
the origin of this condition of universal sinfulness?

The Genesis narrative of “The Fall” is the inspired Scriptural response to this fundamental human question of every
age. Not God but the original man and woman are the source of moral evil. And not just “Everyman” like the
Medieval plays but the first members, the origin, of our human race. This alone can explain the universality of evil in
our race, and the moral evil which we experience in our world today. Yet the final biblical word is not that “human
beings are evil” but that “God is Savior.”

The CFC teaches the following points:

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St. Paul University Surigao
St. Paul University System
8400 Surigao City, Philippines

1. The root of sin is pride and disobedience. It is wanting to be like God, but without God, ahead of God, and not
according to God. Separated from God, human beings lose their sense of peace and harmony with themselves, with
others, with community and with nature. This is what sin does. It upsets the order of values and turns upside down
the harmony governed by God’s Law.
2. The Genesis story should not be read as a strictly historical account, with the author narrating what he has actually
seen and witnessed. Rather, using rich symbols, he uses a story to reflect on the situation of sin in his own times.
Divinely inspired by God, he seeks to understand more deeply why there is evil and suffering in a world that has been
created by a good God. He offers us a deep insight into the drama of evil, in the three moments of temptation, sin
and judgment.

3. God is not the source of evil; the first members, the origin of the human race, are, through the sinful use of
freedom. And because evil has come through the origin of the human race, evil has touched all men and women. It is
universal. We are all born into a sinful word.

Summary:

A. To God is good and all that He has created is good. The presence of evil in the world is due to the sinful exercise
of human freedom by men and women who seek to be like God, but without God, ahead of God, and not according to
God.

B. Sin has its own consequences. Divine punishment is actually the consequences of sin, which is a violation of one’s
person in relation to God and others.

C. Sin is not the final word. Redemption is. God is always ready to save, to offer renewal and reconciliation.

Activity2: : Answer the question into 10-15 sentences.

REFLECTION Why is there sin and evil in the world?
Activity3: :
ASSESSMENTS
A.) Questions to Ponder:
1. Why is there evil in the world according to the story of Genesis and the Church Teaching?
2. What is the truth about God, the human person, the reality of sin and evil based on the story of Genesis?
3. What do you say about people excusing their sinning by saying, “Sapagka’t tayo’y tao lamang?”
4. What does original Sin mean?
5. Why does the Bible treat of original sin?
B.) Read and Summarize: Catechism for Filipino Catholics (CFC 373, 376-83, 1601-04).

TOPIC : Effects of Original Sin

HOURS : 3.5 Hours.
LEARNING Doctrine: Point out those human weaknesses that may lead to separation from God’s
OUTCOMES grace,
Moral: Strive to maintain human dignity in words and actions,
Worship: Give praise to God for the great love He has for human beings.
TEACHING-
LEARNING
ACTIVITIES

Church Teaching:

CFC 373
In rebelling against God, man and woman destroyed their original harmony with:
-each other (“they realized they were
naked”),
others (Cain’s murder of his brother
Abel),
the community (Tower of Babel),

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St. Paul University Surigao
St. Paul University System
8400 Surigao City, Philippines

nature (“cursed be the ground…”) (cf. CCC 400)

Finally, since man and his wife were now excluded from partaking of the fruit of the tree of life (Gen.3:22-24), death
would be theirs, “For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return” (Gen.3:19)

And since man and his wife were now excluded from partaking of the fruit of the tree of life (Gen. 3:22)
death will be theirs. “For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.” (Gen. 3:19)

The original man and woman are the source of moral evil. The presence of evil in the world is due to humanity’s
decision to oppose God’s command. Yet the final biblical word is not that “human beings are evil” but that “GOD IS
SAVIOR!” And God promised to send the Redeemer.

CHURCH TEACHING ON ORIGINAL SIN

The origin of the human race, biblically called Adam and Eve, disobeyed God’s commands in paradise. They lost
their holiness and justice and drew upon themselves DEATH. This “originating sin” changed the condition of the
world. The state of the world became sinful. What we inherit is not the personal, actual sin of Adam and Eve, but the
sinful condition into which each one of us was born. (CFC #376-83)

THREE IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IN DESCRIBING ORIGINAL SIN:

1. “Sin of the World” (John 1:2; CFC, 377)
There is the social dimension of original sin: the “sinful structures” of injustice, oppression and exploitation, partiality,
abuse, etc. We were all born in a world of complex network of sin.

Very clear examples are in our own Philippine situation. The inability of the authorities to pinpoint the culprit of so
many unsolved crimes in our country is due mainly to the complex web of dishonesty running in our governing
system today. Honest leaders can hardly move, of if they move at all, they face strong opposition.

Instead of going to school they roam around doing nothing, or sell cigarettes or sampaguita for a living. These
children did not choose to be born in such poor and oppressive condition. They were born into it. That’s how Original
Sin is inherited.

2. “Concupiscence” ( CFC, 378)

Concupiscence is our inclination towards what is evil. Deep inside us is the personal interior dimension of Original
Sin. This is the “darkness within us” that tends toward sin. St. Paul calls this a personal disharmony within us.
(Rom.7:19-20, 24-25)

Concupiscence is manifested in certain sources or roots of sins traditionally called the “seven capital sins”
from which many sins spring. That is why the Church repeats what the Bible exhorts:
“Let us lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us and persevere in running the race which lies ahead; let
us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith.” (Heb.12:1-2)

The seven capital sins: CFC 381)

Pride- exalting oneself beyond what is due and true.

Lust- disordered desire for, or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure.
Anger- destructive aggressiveness
Gluttony- excessive indulgence in food and drink.
Envy- begrudging others their talents, success and wishing them evil.
Covetousness/ Avarice- desiring what belongs to others, leading to dishonesty, stealing and injustice.
Sloth- laziness & escaping from exerting due effort.

3. “Ratification” of Original Sin

Our own personal sinful thoughts, words and actions confirm the presence of and contribute to the proliferation of the
“sin of the world.” My personal sin increases the sinfulness of the condition in which I live, making it difficult for me, as
well as for others to choose and do what is right and good.

Descriptive Definition of Original Sin

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St. Paul University Surigao
St. Paul University System
8400 Surigao City, Philippines

Original Sin can be described as the state in which we are born as members of the human race. This sinful state
affects our capacity to love God above all, to live to the full and achieve our destiny. It also affects our life with others.
(CFC 383)

It is called “Original” since it dates from the origin of the human race. This means that Original Sin is universal and
therefore the whole of mankind at any time is affected by it.

It is “sin,” not because it is actual sin for us, but because it is a state contrary to God’s will. It hinders us from relating
with God and with others in a loving way. We find it difficult to obey God’s commandments to love and to be true to
our calling as sons and daughters of God.

Integration: Original Sin and Baptism

The sinful state into which we are all born (original sin) weakness our moral choices and we experience deep within
us an inclination towards what is sinful (concupiscence). We can hardly follow our conscience dictates. We know
what is wrong, yet we do it. We know what is right, yet we don’t spontaneously do it. (CFC, 1601-04)

As a consequence of concupiscence and moral weakness we find ourselves in sinful structures, unjust ways of
dealing with one another, dishonest and unfaithful relationships, wounded family life, etc., that stand against God’s
plan for all of us.

Yet human nature is not totally corrupt, incapable of good acts and free choices. The fallen human race is still
capable of rising and of receiving the sanctifying grace. Original Sin consists essentially in the loss of sanctifying
grace, which is the presence or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our life.

The pouring of water at Baptism symbolizes and effects a cleansing from all sin and rebirth to a new life in the Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit who frees us from sin. Therefore, “sin is removed” by the coming of the Holy Spirit into our life.

However, Baptism does not remove the effects of original sin. We continue to live in this “sinful state”. We therefore
continue to grapple with and resist our inclination toward sin. As baptized we live a life in Christ, empowering us to
resist sin and to do good. Christ gave us the example through His total obedience to the Father. Adam’s
disobedience brought death to all, while Christ’s obedience brought us life.

At Baptism we are incorporated into the Body of Christ, the Church. Aside from our rebirth in Christ giving us His Holy
Spirit, the Christian Community supports us in our struggle against sin in our effort to respond to our vocation, as
lovingly and faithfully as we should.

DISCIPLESHIP

Christ constantly calls us to faith and discipleship. We are called to live out the sanctifying grace that we received at
Baptism by following that way of Jesus. This is the consequence of having Christ- to follow Him, or become His
disciples. Each one is called to do a mission just as the Father sent Jesus for a mission. CFC 487

How do we respond to this call to Discipleship?

“Let the greater among you be as the younger, the leader as the servant. I am among you as the one who
serves.”
(Lk. 22:26)
“God has loved us, so we must have the same love for one another.” (1 John 4:11)

Two direct effects of this love are fellowship (koinonia) and service (diakonia). The early Christians lived in communal
life. The binding force that kept them together was the liturgy and their prayer regularly done together.
They devoted themselves to the Apostles instruction and the communal life, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
A reverent fear overtook them all, for many wonders and signs were performed by the apostles, those who believed
shared all things in common, they would sell their properties and goods, dividing everything on the basis of each
one’s needs.

They went to the temple area together every day, while in their homes they broke bread. With exultant and sincere
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St. Paul University Surigao
St. Paul University System
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hearts they took their meals in common, praising God and winning the approval of all the people. Day by day the
Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47)

“…how I served the Lord in humility through the sorrows and trials that came my way from the plotting of certain
Jews.” (Acts 20:19)

The Beatitudes picture for us the face of Christ in the vocation of every disciple. They give us the qualities, actions
and attitudes of Christian living. The blessings of the kingdom are promised to the poor and the powerless; to the
gentle and the afflicted; to those who seek eagerly for righteousness; to the compassionate and pure-hearted; to
those who turn from violence and seek reconciliation. To these Jesus promises a unique kind of happiness. (CFC
744-5).

Activity4: : Reflect on the statement below, and write your answer into 10-15 sentences only.
REFLECTION
“It is Jesus Christ who frees us from Original Sin and our own actual sins. By Baptism, we
share in the redemptive act of Jesus’ death and Resurrection, are freed from Original
Sin, and are strengthened against the power of sin and death. We are reconciled to God
and made members of his holy people, the Church”.

Activity5: :
ASSESSMENTS
A.) Explain With the theme “As a Christ-centered Paulinians, I am a Dedicated, transformative supporter and
stewards of God’s creation, impelled by compassion and charity for all”

B.) Questions to Answer:

1. Why the Original Sin called the “sin of the world?”

2. How does Original Sin affect human nature?
3. If Baptism does not remove the effects of Original Sin, of what importance is it to us with regard to
Concupiscence? Explain.
4. How can discipleship help us overcome sinfulness?

C.) Biblical Signboard/Sticker: Make sign boards or stickers of biblical passage about the commandments that
can be given to anyone. You may use it or post or hang them in your home.

D.) Ten Commandments Bookmark: Make a bookmark that can be distributed to children and parents.

Activity 6: Journal Writing: Read Luke 19:1-10 and make a journal, just follow the
Question below.
1. What word, phrase, line or verse is most meaningful to you? (LECTIO) repeated, reverent reading of the
suggested biblical text.
2. What is the Lord telling you in that most meaningful word, phrase, line or verse? (MEDITATIO) entering into the
truth of the text.
3. How have I concretely experienced this most meaningful word, phrase, line or verse in my life? (focus on one
experience only) Talk to Jesus, the Living Word. (ORATIO) Listen to Jesus (CONTEMPLATIO)
4. What feelings were evoked during your time of prayer?
5. (ACTIO) is making fruitful what the Word has taught us. What does the text want me to do?

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