nd Eve on account of their sin?
A. Adam and Eve on account of their sin lost innocence and holiness, and
were doomed to sickness and death.

They were innocent and holy because they were the friends of God and in
a state of grace, but by their sin they lost His grace and friendship.
"Doomed" means sentenced or condemned. The first evil result, then, of
Adam's sin was that he lost innocence and made his body a rebel against
his soul. Then he was to suffer poverty, hunger, cold, sickness, death,
and every kind of ill; but the worst consequence of all was that God
closed Heaven against him. After a few years' trial, as we said, God was
to take him into Heaven; but now He has closed it against Adam and his
posterity. All the people in the world could never induce God to open it
again; for He closed it in accordance with His promise, and man was an
exile and outcast from his heavenly home.

45 Q. What evil befell us on account of the disobedience of our first
parents?
A. On account of the disobedience of our first parents we all share in
their sin and punishment, as we should have shared in their happiness if
they had remained faithful.

Does it not seem strange that we should suffer for the sin of our first
parents, when we had nothing to do with it? No. It happens every day
that children suffer for the faults of their parents and we do not
wonder at it. Let us suppose a man's father leaves him a large
fortune--houses, land, and money--and that he and his children are happy
in the enjoyment of their inheritance. The children are sent to the best
schools, have everything they desire now, and bright hopes of happiness
and prosperity in the future. But alas! their hopes are vain. The father
begins to drink or gamble, and soon the great fortune is squandered.
House after house is sold and dollar after dollar spent, till absolute
poverty comes upon the children, and the sad condition of their home
tells of their distress. Do they not suffer for the sins of their
father, though they had nothing to do with them? Indeed, many families
in the world suffer thus through the faults of others, and most
frequently of some of their members. Could you blame the grandfather for
leaving the estate? Certainly not; for it was goodness on his part that
made him give. Let us apply this example. What God gave Adam was to be
ours also, and he squandered and misused it because he had free will,
which God could not take from him without changing