Saturday, October 21, 2017 28th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Rom 4:13,16-18 Gospel: Luke 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)
Today’s Gospel message on the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit reminds me of a co-teacher in Makati City in mid 80’s who was selling pornographic VHS tapes to students. I was not yet a priest that time but my zeal for souls ejected me from the pit of “pakikisama” and urged me to report the matter to the principal. The principal scheduled a hearing but did not conduct an entrapment.
As expected the teacher denied any wrong doing and our only student witness eventually recanted. The parents of the child accused us of using their son to pin down an undesirable teacher. As I was trying to convince the parents to get to the side of the truth, I implored the help of the Holy Spirit. The words just came like manna from heaven. I asked, “Is there any sense sending your son to be educated in a school you do not trust?”
Behind this question lurked a very important doctrine that takes us to the core of today’s Gospel message. As a school cannot educate unless it enjoys the trust and confidence of the parents of students, so the Holy Spirit cannot work on a person who declines His inspiration. The Holy Spirit plays an important role in leading us to seek God’s forgiveness because it is through His inspiration that we feel sorry for our sins and come to the altar of reconciliation. It follows then that those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit will never arrive at repentance and so will never be forgiven.
I was then asking the Holy Spirit to inspire to repentance the parents I was trying to convince to side with the truth. “If you don’t trust the school anymore,” I told the parents, “then you have no business sending your son to this school run by a principal you cannot trust and a teacher like me you suspect of maligning another teacher”. These words were heaven sent. They finally confessed that the teacher came to their house asking for help the night after his immoral activity was discovered. –Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: [email protected].
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya?
I-type ang BANDERA REACT
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Bandera. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.