Sin against the Holy Spirit

Monday, January 23, 2017
3rd Week
in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Heb. 9:15. 24-28
Gospel: Mark 3:22-30
The teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul: the chief of the demons helps him to drive out demons.”
Jesus called them to him and began teaching them by means of stories or parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a nation is divided by civil war, that nation cannot stand. If a family divides itself into groups, that family will not survive. In the same way, if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he will not stand; he is finished. No one can break into the house of the Strong one in order to plunder his goods, unless he first ties up the Strong one. Then indeed, he can plunder his house.
“Truly, I say to you, every sin will be forgiven humankind, even insults to God, however numerous. But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven: he carries the guilt of his sin forever.” This was their sin when they said, “He has an evil spirit in him.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
All sins can be forgiven because God’s mercy is boundless. In his love he can never deprive anyone of forgiveness. But there is an exception. Today’s Gospel ends with this phrase: “But whoever slanders the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven: he carries the guilt of his sin forever.”
This was their sin when the Pharisees called Jesus the prince of devils. Many people came to recognize Jesus for his miraculous works but the Pharisees poisoned their minds by alleging that an evil spirit was at work in him.
We stand at the same level of the Pharisees when we refuse to recognize the power of the Holy Spirit. In so doing we shut all access to God’s forgiveness. When we recognize no power other than the power of evil, we render forgiveness impossible because only God has the power to forgive. Satan, being the offender, has no power to forgive. “The offender never pardons,” wrote George Herbert in Jacula Prudentum.
Recognizing the power of the Holy Spirit entails submission to the requisites of forgiveness. One such requisite is confessing to God through the Apostles, now represented by the Pope who has delegated the power to forgive to the priests. Jesus laid this down when he told the Apostles: “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (John 20:23).

There are many other ways a person sins against the Holy Spirit, shutting himself off from access to forgiveness of sins. These sins basically consist in the rejection of the Holy Spirit’s influence in one’s life. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.

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