The Unforgivable Sin

Leave it up to Michael the Lesser to find the one sentence presented to us by the Church on this tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time that speaks of doom and gloom. We hear Jesus utter a stark warning that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.  What a bummer to have to read this on a summer Sunday.  Why should I add this to the list of worries that I carry around with me?

This is, of course, a very serious saying of Jesus. He does not say this lightly.  It is a side of Jesus we tend to marginalize somewhat because speaking about loving one another and how the Father loves us is much more palatable than how to get yourself into an eternal mess that you cannot get out of. 

How do I know if I have blasphemed the Holy Spirit? I mean I sometimes use God’s name in vain, which is wrong, but I confess these slips in confession and I am forgiven and reconciled with the Father.  I cannot remember ever saying anything bad about the Holy Spirit but I might have and now I am doomed to hell forever!  What can I do?

The one thing you can do is stop worrying about blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. It is possible to commit this unforgivable sin but if you are worried about it at all, it is unlikely that you would be able to commit this unpardonable sin.  This sin is not forgivable because if you commit it, it is you yourself that will reject the offer of God’s mercy and forgiveness.  This sin consists of refusing the mercy of God, turning down all of the second chances and all of the graces He sends you to save you and to persist in your sin shunning the love of God.

Give God just one chance to win you back and accept His Mercy and His Love and you will have made it impossible to commit this most deadly of sins.

We must be alert and awake at all times and be ready to say “shamata” which in Japanese means “I have made a mistake”  If we live our lives the best way that we can and we are humble enough to admit where we went wrong and if we make a resolution to mend our ways we need not fear committing blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

We Catholics are especially blessed over all of the other denominations. Because the Catholic Church has one-hundred-percent of the Gospel truth, we have a ready means that will help us to repair any tear in the relationship between ourselves and God. This blessing is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Christ to give grace.  It is called by a couple of names including Penance, Confession, and Reconciliation.  The sacrament of Confession is so important to our spiritual well-being that the Church has found it necessary to make it an actual rule that we have to go to confession at least once a year around Easter.  It is called our Easter duty.  Can you imagine if you washed your car only once a year how dirty and dusty it would get?  We see that the car is dirty and we get it washed.  We do not have to wait for General Motors to come out with an edict stating that we have to wash our cars once a year.  How foolish we can be.

There are some people who never go to confession.  Is it because they don’t sin?  Probably not.  They don’t go because they haven’t been in five, ten or even twenty-five years and they are ashamed. Or they decide they come from a small church and are well known to the priest and they are afraid that the priest would think less of them if he knew what kind of sins he committed.  Let’s address both of these concerns one at a time.

Michael the Lesser once stayed away from confession for years, five years to be exact.  To be honest, I was angry at God as I had tried to enter the Franciscans and long story short, it just did not work out. I returned from the time there very angry that God seemingly rejected me.  It hurt, and it hurt bad for a while.  I still went to church and on the outside, I was a good little Catholic Do-Be. Inside my anger and hurt went beyond description and I could not get over it.  One day I was in downtown Chicago and went into St. Peter’s Church.  At the time as they do now, they have confessions available all day long.  I went in just to reflect and to visit the Eucharist and had no intention of going to confession. The confessional called me and the Holy Spirit moved me and I entered and for the next fifteen minutes I poured out my heart to the unknown priest. At the end, he told me that it was a good confession and he welcomed me back home. I left the box and it was as if the weight of the ages was removed from my back. I felt joyful again and felt like I was in God’s good graces again.  If you are in a similar position, swallow your pride, because that is what is keeping you away and walk into the confessional and make things good again between you and God. 

I go to the same priest every time I go to confession. Father Joe is a kind confessor and he has helped me through several spiritual messes that I have gotten myself into. He knows me by name and by sight and I have known him for at least twenty years. Never once in all that time has he ever in any way shape or form even hinted at anything I have ever told him in the confessional. Is it because Father Joe is an extraordinarily holy priest that he is able to keep my confessions from affecting how he treats me?  Well, while he is an extraordinarily holy priest, I believe that our priests simply forget what we tell them. Even if he does not forget, although the modern priest has so much to do that I do not know why he would bother trying to remember my petty sins, he simply purges them out of his mind.  Besides, even if you are really shy and really concerned about your particular priest thinking the worse of you because of your sins, then go anonymously behind the screen.  If that still isn’t good enough for you, then by all means, seek out another parish and another priest who does not know you.   One way or another, you need to get yourself right with God

Please remember that God’s ways are not man’s ways. There is no trickery involved in accepting God’s mercy.  When God says, “Gotcha,” He says it with love.

Purgatory – please remember to pray for the poor souls. They are mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers to all of us and they need our help.