Saturday, October 15, 2016 28th Week in Ordinary Time St. Teresa of Avila 1st Reading: Eph 1: 15-23 Gospel: Lk 12:8-12
Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before people, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.
There will be pardon for the one who criticizes the Son of Man, but there will be no pardon for the one who slanders the Holy Spirit.
When you are brought before the synagogues, governors and rulers, don’t worry about how you will defend yourself or what to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you have to say.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
The doctrine that sins against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven is not about a God hard-wired to retaliate when offended. Rather, it is about God’s deep respect for human freedom. The Holy Spirit, although uncreated and having neither beginning nor end is fruit of the love between the Father and the Son. God shares this love to humanity, thus making available forgiveness to anyone seeking it in the name of love. The Holy Spirit, being the fruit of this love, comes in as inspirer. When a sinner ignores this inspiration and refuses to seek forgiveness in the exercise of his freedom, God will leave him where he is. He remains unforgiven, and he cannot be forgiven for as long as he continues to exercise his freedom this way.
While we may not be among those who denounce the role of the Holy Spirit in every person’s conversion, we may still be guilty of some sins against the Holy Spirit if we procrastinate. Some of us adopt the so-called “twenty-minutes–before – takeoff” strategy to secure themselves in the next life. The game plan is to enjoy everything that the devil can offer in this lifetime and feign repentance by confessing all sins at deathbed. This too is a mockery of the Holy Spirit upon whose power alone repentance can happen.
To say that one can come to repentance on his own at some pre-scheduled future time is to say that the Holy Spirit’s role is redundant. This is tantamount to denying the role of God’s grace. Experience, however, tells us that without God’s grace any attempt to rise from sin becomes prelude to another fall.
“The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray…” (Rom. 8:26). Because no sincere repentance can happen under the scheme of procrastination, divine forgiveness is not available. Procrastination too is one sin against the Holy Spirit that cannot be forgiven. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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