The Gospel of Mark 3:22-30 says to us: “In truth I say to you, all will be pardoned to men, such sins, as whatever blasphemy you have said. But whomever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, never will be pardoned, but will be guilty of an eternal sin.”

This sin against the Holy Spirit is hardness of heart in not accepting the mercy of God in our life. So this is the “conscious” refusal of a person to accept the salvation that God gives to us through grace…

According to such an exegesis, “blasphemy” does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross. Pope John Paul II (Dominum et Vivificantem 46)

Mercy Lord…I ask God that He never permits that my heart may be hardened to this point. It is preferable to live in physical death than to live in sin against the Holy Spirit that is death of the soul. I do not want to go to hell, even in my weaknesses and sins, I never want to come to close myself to the mercy and salvation of my Lord.

Ademir Costa

translated from Portuguese