The Unforgivable Sin
Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
My dear encountered couples:
There are many people in the world who don’t believe that Jesus is divine, there are some who probably think he was a bit mental, like his relatives in yesterday’s reading who were saying, “He is out of his mind.” And there are certainly plenty of people who don’t agree with his love and forgiveness policies. Many things are said for and against Jesus Christ by people living today, but I have never heard anybody accuse him of being possessed by a devil. The Pharisees said that, though. With all his goodness and love and the miracles he performed to make life better for people, they had the arrogance to say, “He is possessed by an unclean spirit.”
What did Jesus say about that? “I give you my word,” he said, “every sin will be forgiven mankind and all the blasphemies men utter, but whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He carries the guilt of his sin without end.” That is what we call the unforgivable sin. Why is it unforgivable? Because that person shuts himself off from the very source of forgiveness.
It is through Jesus Christ and only through Jesus Christ that we are forgiven. But each of us personally must be moved to sorrow and repentance for our sins or we will not be open to receive that forgiveness. The movement towards sorrow and repentance comes from the Spirit of Christ which he first gave to his close friends on Pentecost and now gives to us. But if we would ever reject the Holy Spirit to the point of considering him evil and not good, we would be shutting ourselves off completely from his influence. We would be sealing shut his entry into our souls. And then where would we be? Without the help we need to be sorry for our sins and receive forgiveness! I doubt that any of us here will ever commit the unforgivable sin.
But let us pray often to the Holy Spirit and let him know our souls welcome him. We don’t want to be without him.
