 Greetings, and welcome to this homily series for Formed in Christ that you might have life. And we want to start this at the very beginning. When we talk about the beginning of time, we speak of God as Creator. The God has created all things, the heavens and the earth. And when we look at the account of creation, we see that God created things in a hierarchical manner. He built them, created them, one after the other. He starts with the fish, and he moves to the birds, and he moves to the animals, and he crowns his creation with the human person. We are made in God's image and likeness, unlike all other creation. Because of that, we have special gifts, the capacity for reason, the capacity to will. We don't live by instinct. We can choose. Also at the very beginning, when we were created, we were given sanctifying grace, God's own life within us. We were also given what were called the Prater Natural Gifts. Those Prater Natural Gifts, it meant that we had infused knowledge. Imagine if you wanted to do something. You wanted to learn how to play golf, and instantly all the skills and abilities and knowledge you would need would be immediately given. We had that. We had infused knowledge. We had control over our passions. We didn't think that evil was somehow cool. We just knew that evil was evil. And we realized that, and we stayed away from it. We had control over our passions. We also had an immortality of our body. Did you know, dear young people, that we were not supposed to get sick, and we were not supposed to die? Those Prater Natural Gifts were given to us with sanctifying grace at the beginning. But our first parents, let's go to this little apple here. Our first parents, God was so loving and so kind. He gave them each other, Adam and Eve. Gave them a beautiful garden. He told them to procreate and make a family. He took care of them. They didn't have to work. The garden would take care of them. But they began to listen to whispered lies, deception from the devil, who convinced them that God was keeping something from them. He doesn't want you to have everything. He doesn't want you to have fun. He's keeping you down. And our first parents believed that lie. The Genesis account tells us that it was a piece of fruit. And we oftentimes speak of an apple. More traditionally, actually, we thought it was a pear. The scriptures just said it was a piece of fruit. And God told them, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But they thought that that piece of fruit was better. Their own will was better than what God was asking, so they disobeyed him. Now, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, our Catechism tells us that the Genesis account uses creative language. So we know that there are parts of this story that are being told to us. The devils represented as a snake, the fruit is a symbol of disobedience. And of course, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is an invitation to love. And we know that our first parents not only did they eat a piece of fruit, but they listened to lies that slandered God. And they rebelled against their loving father. That was the first sin, what we call the original sin. Now, we all bear the consequences of that because these were our first parents. They were the holders of human nature. We have a human nature, we bear the fault. With the disobedience of Adam and Eve, we have the fall from grace. The most terrible thing that's ever happened in human history. It is described by the spiritual masters that our nature was a beautiful palace. And someone threw a grenade into the palace. The walls were able to sustain the blast. But everything inside, all the things inside, we're just throwing a complete disarray. Our human nature is wounded. It's still good, but it's wounded, deeply wounded. Which means now we get sick and our bodies will die. Now we think that evil is good and good is evil. We have a fallenness, and we're stuck in that fallenness. But the Lord Jesus comes to us as Savior. After preparing for his arrival, God the Son came in order to redeem us. He took away all of our sins by the working of his grace. And he helps us by the gift of his sacraments. Do you know that in the reception of a sacrament, sanctifying grace, the grace that was lost at the beginning of time, in the sacraments we receive that sanctifying grace back into our souls. That means the work that Jesus Christ desires to do is a powerful redemption. We are being redeemed, brought back, not simply to the original goodness, but far beyond it to holiness in Christ Jesus. But we have to say yes. So we see the creation, we see the fall. Which is why I want you, dear high schoolers, to know in your mind and heart these three important words, good, fallen, redeemed. We are good. The walls withstood the blast. Sin cannot destroy the good that God has created, but we're fallen. Our desires and our incarnations and our thoughts are not always right. And we are fallen. We have to acknowledge that. We can't get stuck in that fallenness because we have the possibility in Jesus Christ for redemption. And we have to say yes to the workings of his grace. So as you study the beginning of time, and that terrible fall did not forget the glorious invitation and the offer of God's grace, God bless you.