The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.”
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit 11 will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” Mk 3:22-20 NAB
The scribes coming from Jerusalem are envious of the religious leaders that have in their hands the sacrificial cult of the Temple and money of the Treasury, annexed to the Temple. They perceived that Jesus, with His announcement of truth and of love, is a threat to their power and priviledges. Jesus already had expelled the impure spirits that dominated a man in the synagogue. They strive to discredit Jesus, to keep him away from the people.
The holy Spirit is love. Considering the works of love of the Spirit as being works of the devil signifies the distancing and the rupture with the love of God. Rejections and killing those that with love seek to rescue human dignity from the impoverished exploited and excluded signifies the rejection of the life and of the love of God.
Why is it that “blasphemy” against the Holy Spirit is unforgiveable? How should we understand this “blasphemy”? St.. Thomas Aquinas responds that one treats the sin “unforgiveable” by its own nature, because it excludes those elements of graces through which is given the forgiven of sins.
According to this exegesis, the “blasphemy” does not consist in offending the Holy Spirit with words; it consists, before, in refusing to accept the salvation that God offers to man, through the same Holy Spirit, acting in virtue of the sacrifice of the Cross.
If the man rejects or lets go of being “convinced of sin” which comes from the Holy Spirit and has the salvific character, he rejects contemporaneously the “coming” of the Consoler: that “coming” that is effected in the mystery of Easter, in union with the redemptive power of the Blood of Christ: the blood that “purifies the conscience from the dead works” we know that the fruit of this purification is the remission of sins.
Consequently, whoever rejects the Spirit and the Blood remains in “dead works”, in sin. And the “Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” consists exactly in the radical refusal of accepting this remission, of which He is the intimate dispensor and that presupposes the true conversion, for He operates in the conscience. If Jesus says that the sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be pardoned in this life and in the future, it is because this “non-remission” is tied, as to its cause, to “non-penitence”, this is to radical refusal to be converted.
This is equivalent to a radical refusal to go to the founts of Redemption; these, therefore, remain “always” open in the economy of salvation, in what is realized the mission of the Holy Spirit. This has the infinite power to draw from these fonts: “You will received what is mine”, says Jesus.
In this mode, He completes in the human souls the work of redemption, operated through Christ distributing his fruits.
Speaking the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin committed by men, that claims the pretense “direct” of persevering in evil-in whatever sin-and refusing redemption through the same way.
The man remains closed in sin, making his own conversion impossible on his part, and also, consequently, the remission of sins, that he considered not essential or not important for life.
It is a situation of spiritual ruin, because the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not permit the man to leave the prison in which he himself closes or opens to the divine fonts of purification of the conscience of the remission of sins.
translated from Portuguese
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament © 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.