Homily for Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time (Year C - 1/27/2025)

Good morning. In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us about the Holy Spirit, saying: “Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin” (3:28). We hear this in the other two Synoptic Gospels as well. From the Gospel of Matthew (12:31): "Whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. And from the Gospel of Luke (12:10): "Every one who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” What does it mean for us to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?

In this encyclical, “On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World”, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote the following:

“‘[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 . . Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a ‘right’ to persist in evil-in any sin at all-and who thus rejects Redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, thus making impossible one's conversion, and consequently the remission of sins, which one considers not essential or not important for one's life. This is a state of spiritual ruin, because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not allow one to escape from one's self-imposed imprisonment and open oneself to the divine sources of the purification of consciences and of the remission of sins” (46).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.”

We see this in the post-Christian world that we live in today in which “Pope Pius XII had already declared that ‘the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin,’ and this loss goes hand in hand with the ‘loss of the sense of God’" (John Paul II, 47). Saint Angela Merici did not lose her "sense of God" even though she was struck with blindness while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She proceeded to visit the sacred shrines, seeing them with her spirit. On the way back while praying before a crucifix, Angela’s sight was restored. (Franciscan Media)

What can we do so that we do not lose the “sense of God” in our lives? We live a sacramental life. In Baptism, we were reborn to a new life in Christ. In the Eucharist, our Lord Jesus Christ nourishes us and strengthens us to overcome temptations and sins. In Confirmation, we are sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For those of us who are married, we set aside pride and individuals, willing the good of our spouse with self-giving and self-sacrificing love. And, of course, in Reconciliation, we receive God’s mercy and forgiveness; we repent and promise not to sin. In other words, we tap into the graces of the sacraments that we have received so that we do not lose the “sense of God” in our lives and, most of all, not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.