A “Happy?” Fault
Written by: William Kuebler
Last winter, while shuffling my Christmas playlist, I listened, just as I had many times before, to the old English Christmas carol “Adam Lay Ybounden.” This time, however, the last stanza grabbed my attention in a new way. The lyrics that stood out were, “Blessed be the time that apple taken was! Therefore we mown syngen Deo Gratias! Deo Gratias!” [1]. Why on earth would a religious carol praise God for Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit, when sin entered the world? I thought that this was bad, not something to be celebrated.
After Christmas, I asked Fitz Green, a local Anglican priest and staff member at the Center for Christian Study, what this lyric meant. He told me it was a reference to the Felix culpa perspective on the Fall. Felix culpa is Latin for “happy fault.” It comes from a line in the Exsultet, an ancient hymn sung during the Easter Vigil. The lyrics read, “O wonderful providence of Adam’s sin . . . O happy fault, which gained for us so great and glorious a Redeemer” [2]. The reason for such a proclamation is that the grace, beauty, and goodness of our redemption in Christ far outweighs the negativity of the fall. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and other important theologians draw this from Romans 8, where Paul says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” [3]. In other words, the absolute value of our redemption is greater than that of our suffering.
However, even with the goodness of redemption and its magnitude in mind, we still must ask, “Why?” Why does the Exsultet say, “O wonderful providence of Adam’s sin?” We can turn to Augustine to start answering this question. In the Enchiridion, he says, “God judged it better to bring good out of evil than not to permit any evil to exist” [4]. This helps, but it does not tell us what kind of good God planned or why He allows evil. For this we must turn to Thomas Aquinas who says, “For God allows evils to happen in order to bring a greater good therefrom” [5]. It is something better than if evil had not been permitted that God had planned.
The first good that Augustine and Aquinas are getting at is that sanctification through suffering prepares us for paradise better than without suffering. They drew this idea from James 1, which says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” [6]. In other words, we are purified and perfected through suffering.
Drawing from Romans 5, which says that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” [7], Augustine and Aquinas’ second argument is that God’s grace is greater than sin and far greater than we can imagine. The goodness and magnitude of His grace is revealed in redeeming us from evil, and by extension, we also see the greater glory of God in His punishing evil. God’s redemptive grace and justice in punishing evil would not have happened without His permitting the Fall.
It is with this understanding of sanctification, grace, and the greater glory of God that we can sing “O happy fault” and “Blessed be the time the apple taken was.” It was God’s “wonderful providence” to greater sanctify His people, to reveal the magnitude of His grace, and to reveal His glorious justice in allowing the Fall to happen. However, despite the grounding for Felix culpa in Scripture and church tradition, it is still a difficult doctrine to accept. Suffering, even if it is for a good purpose in the grand narrative of history, is still hard. The “happy fault” does not reduce the pain that we feel now in a still broken world. However, it does allow us to look forward with eagerness to the day in which God is “making all things new” [8]. This is the great hope of the Gospel. To God be the glory!
[1] Choir of King’s College, “Adam Lay Ybounden.” Carols from Cambridge: The Very Best Sacred Christmas Carols, Decca, 2013, track 19, https://open.spotify.com/track/43VaEwM6zXw84oPGJw9bS0?si=081b98eb8e4d498a
[2] Exsultet, The Book of Common Prayer (2019). Anglican Liturgy Press, 2019.
[3] Romans 8:18, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway, 2001.
[4] Augustine. Enchiridion On Faith, Hope, and Love. Translated by Albert C Outler, 1955, Tertullian, https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/augustine_enchiridion_02_trans.htm#C8, Accessed 5 Sept. 2024.
[5] Aquinas, Thomas. The Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas. 2nd ed., 1920, New Advent, https://www.newadvent.org/summa/4001.htm#article3, Accessed 5 Sept. 2024.
[6] James 1:2–4, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway, 2001.
[7] Romans 5:20, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway, 2001.
[8] Revelation 21:5, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway, 2001.
William is a fourth-year
