Natural or Artificial?

I was trying out organic coffee. Why are people attracted to the word "organic"? What is Organic Coffee anyway? It is: "coffee produced without the aid of artificial chemical substances, such as certain additives or some pesticides and herbicides." (Wikipedia) It would seem that we aren't comfortable with the words "artificial", "chemical", "additives", "pesticides and herbicides". We like it natural.

When considering our own Christian lifestyle, what can we consider "natural" and "artificial"? Some would say, "Just be who you are". But who are we really? "Naturally" we are God's sons and daughters through Christ.  Therefore, when we act otherwise or in the opposite, we become "artificial".  Many think that "being ourselves" is to indulge to sinful pleasures for it is what we feel naturally. But this is not so. By virtue of original sin, we are inclined to sin, we have our own concupiscence -- our wounded nature.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 418 describes this: "As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin."  We can say every time we sin, we are becoming more and more artificial; with "sinful additives"; farther from our natural self -- as ones created in the image and likeness of God. But in Christ, we are redeemed; we are restored and justified in Christ.

Whoever accepts Christ through Baptism have become adopted children of God through the begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore in "Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle." (CCC 405)

Let us not allow the artificiality of sin to deceive us. We are called to be who we naturally are: God's children! May we call upon the Holy Spirit to convict us that we can truly follow Jesus.