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guilty of offending God grievously and deserved to be punished by being cast off from Him
for eternity. But, in His everlasting and tender love, God was stirred with deep compassion to
save him. He showed great depth of His mercy to man; and the holy Angels were astounded by
it. May the God of Mercy be exalted forever!
(2.3) Man’s Original Sin Deserves Suffering and Death (Diary, # 1744)
Just like the fallen angels, during his hour of trial, man did not stand firm and did not
remain faithful to God. At the urging of the fallen spirit, he deserted God and committed a great
evil in His sight, the “sin of the world” called Original Sin. 96 Thereafter, God’s graces and gifts
were taken away from him, and in its place, unhappiness, tears, pain, bitterness, sinful tendency,
and death (Diary, # 1744).
For the just man who puts his faith in Christ’s Resurrection, suffering and death are
inevitably not evil. Still, evil could lead to both suffering and death, “For evil remains bound to
sin and death” by its historical origin and experience. 97 Thus, with the Fall, suffering and death
are now left to accompany man until his last breath; with death as his final experience of
suffering on earth. 98
But in spite of the Fall, God did not let man waste away or lose hope. Day after day, in
the depths of his sin and great torment of body and soul, man cried out constantly to Him for His
mercy. And God sent His prophets to Israel. But even if man wanted to, he could not save
himself. For in reality, there was an unbridgeable rift between God and man. But in spite of his
unending sorrows and tears, Yahweh seemed deaf to it all. And He left time to move on.
96
Ibid., Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, IV-15.
Ibid., Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, II-7, IV-15.
98
Ibid., Faustina, Diary, # 1744; Pope John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, IV-15.
97
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