FORGIVING THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN

Monday in the 3rd Week of the Ordinary Time
Mk 3:22-30

The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. Equal with the Father and the Son, He is God. God forgives sins.

The Holy Spirit made the Blessed Mother conceive the Lord (cf. Lk 1:35). He descended on Jesus at the Jordan (cf. Mt 3:16, Mk 1:10, Lk 3:22, Jn 1:32-33). Jesus proclaimed that the Holy Spirit is in Him (Lk 4:18). Jesus forgives sins.

After rising from the dead, Jesus appeared to the Eleven in the Upper Room. He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (Jn 20:22). Jesus gave power to His apostles; that power is the Holy Spirit Himself (cf. Acts 1:8). On Pentecost, the same Holy Spirit descended upon the early Christian community (cf. Acts 2:1-4). The Church, through the Apostles and their successors, forgives sins as ordained by God.

He who sins against the Holy Spirit rejects the very power behind the forgiveness of sins: God, the Holy Spirit, Himself. Thus, until he takes back His rejection of the Holy Spirit, he cannot be forgiven. How can he be forgiven when he does not accept the power that forgives? How can his sins be wiped out when he refuses to acknowledge the Holy Spirit who is God Himself, who is in Christ, and who resides in the Church? Thus, the sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven. But when he accepts the Holy Spirit present in Christ and His Church, then his unforgivable sin can be forgiven.