ng to it. Similar conduct on our part will lead us also into sin.

Q. 253. {44} What befell Adam and 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.

Q. 254. What other evils befell Adam and Eve on account of their sin?
A. Many other evils befell Adam and Eve on account of their sin. They
were driven out of Paradise and condemned to toil. God also ordained
that henceforth the earth should yield no crops without cultivation, and
that the beasts, man's former friends, should become his savage enemies.

Q. 255. Were we to remain in the Garden of Paradise forever if Adam had
not sinned?
A. We were not to remain in the Garden of Paradise forever even if Adam
had not sinned, but after passing through the years of our probation or
trial upon earth we were to be taken, body and soul, into heaven without
suffering death.

Q. 256. {45} 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.

Q. 257. Is it not unjust to punish us for the sin of our first parents?
A. It is not unjust to punish us for the sin of our first parents,
because their punishment consisted in being deprived of a free gift of
God; that is, of the gift of original justice to which they had no
strict right and which they wilfully forfeited by their act of
disobedience.

Q. 258. But how did the loss of the gift of original justice leave our
first parents and us in mortal sin?
A. The loss of the gift of original justice left our first parents and
us in mortal sin because it deprived them of the Grace of God, and to be
without this gift of Grace which they should have had was to be in
mortal sin. As all their children are deprived of the same gift, they,
too, come into the world in a state of mortal sin.

Q. 259. {46} What other effects followed from the sin of our first
parents?
A. Our nature was corrupted by the sin of our first parents, which
darkened our understanding, weakened our will, and left in us a strong
inclination to evil.

Q. 260. What do we mean by "our nature was corrupted"?
A. When we say "our nature was corrupted" we mean that our whole being,
body and soul, was injured in all its parts and powers.

Q. 261. Why do we say our understanding was darkened?
A.