SERMO 71
On the Words of the Gospel of Matthew 12:32
"Whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven."
It will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in the future.
OR CONCERNING BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Pharisees are warned by their own words to withdraw from the kingdom of the devil.
A great question arises from the recent gospel reading; to answer which, as far as we are concerned, we are insufficient: but our sufficiency is from God, as much as we can either receive or grasp His help. First, therefore, observe the magnitude of the question: so that, when you see the burden placed on our shoulders, you may pray for our labors, and in the help provided to us, you may find edification for your minds. When a demon-possessed blind and mute person was brought to the Lord, and He healed him, so that he spoke and saw, and all the crowds were amazed, saying: "Could this be the Son of David?" But the Pharisees, hearing this, said: "This man casts out demons only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons." But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand; and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then will his kingdom stand?" By saying this, He wanted to make them understand from their own confession, that by not believing in Him, they had chosen to be in the kingdom of the devil, which could certainly not stand when divided against itself. Therefore, let the Pharisees choose whatever they wish. If Satan cannot cast out Satan, they could find nothing to say against the Lord; but if he can, they should be much more concerned and withdraw from his kingdom, which cannot stand when divided against itself.
The expulsion of the devil through the power of Christ.
In what manner, however, the Lord Christ casts out demons, so that they do not think He does it by the prince of demons, let them observe what follows: "And if I," He says, "cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges." He said this, indeed, about his disciples, sons of that people, who certainly were well aware that they had learned nothing of evil arts from the good Master, such that they would cast out demons by the prince of demons. Therefore, He says, they shall be your judges. "They," He says, "they ignoble and contemptible of this world, in whom not artful wickedness, but holy simplicity of my power appears, they shall be my witnesses and shall judge you." Then He adds: "But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." What does this mean? "If I," He says, "by the Spirit of God cast out demons, your sons could not do otherwise, to whom I have given not a malignant doctrine but simple faith. Without a doubt, the kingdom of God has come upon you, whereby the kingdom of the devil is overthrown; along with it, you shall also be overthrown, unless you change."
Liberation from the devil through grace.
And because He had said: "In what do your sons cast out?", to show His grace in them, not their merit: "Or how can anyone," He says, "enter the strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man and then plunders his house? 'Your sons,' He says, 'who either have believed in me, or are still going to believe, and will cast out demons not by the prince of demons but in simple holiness; who indeed were or are even what you also are, that is, sinners and ungodly, and therefore in the house of the devil and the goods of the devil; how could they be rescued from him, whom strong iniquity held firmly, unless he were bound by the chains of My righteousness, and I would plunder his goods, which were vessels of wrath, and make them My vessels of mercy?'" This is what also the blessed Apostle says, rebuking the proud as if they were boasting about their own merits: "For who makes you different?" This is: "From the lump of perdition from Adam and from vessels of wrath, who makes you different?" And so no one would say "my righteousness", "What do you have," he says, "that you did not receive?" Wherefore he also says about himself: "For we too were once naturally children of wrath, even as others." Therefore he was also a vessel in the house of that wicked one while he was a persecutor of the Church, a blasphemer, abusive, acting in malice and envy, as he confesses; but He who bound the strong man, rescued the vessel of destruction from him and made it a vessel of election.
The Kingdom of Christ remains undivided even with schisms stirred up.
Then, so that unbelievers and the impious who oppose the Christian name would not think that because of various heresies and schisms of those who under the Christian name gather flocks of the lost, even the kingdom of Christ is divided against itself, he consequently adds: "He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me, scatters." He does not say: "He who is not under the sound of my name," or: "under the appearance of my sacrament," but: "He who is not with me is against me." Nor does he say: "He who does not gather under the sound of my name," but: "He who does not gather with me, scatters." Therefore, the kingdom of Christ is not divided against itself, even if men try to divide what was purchased at the price of Christ's blood. For the Lord knows who are his. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart, he says, from iniquity. For if he does not depart from iniquity, he does not belong to the kingdom of Christ, even if he names the name of Christ. Thus, to mention some examples: the spirit of greed and the spirit of lust, because one gathers, the other dissipates, are divided against themselves; and both belong to the kingdom of the devil. Among the idol worshipers, the spirit of Juno and the spirit of Hercules are divided against themselves; and both belong to the kingdom of the devil. The pagan enemy of Christ and the Jewish enemy of Christ, are divided against themselves; and both belong to the kingdom of the devil. The Arian and the Photinian, both heretics, and divided against each other; the Donatist and the Maximianist, both heretics, and divided against each other; all the vices and errors of mortals, contrary among themselves, are divided against themselves; and all belong to the kingdom of the devil. Therefore, his kingdom will not stand. But the just and the impious,
The faithful and the unbeliever, the catholic and the heretic are indeed divided against each other; but not both belong to the kingdom of Christ. The Lord knows who are His. Let no one flatter himself with the name. If one wishes the name of the Lord to benefit him, let him depart from iniquity who invokes the name of the Lord.
Sin against the Holy Spirit, such as in pagans, Jews and heretics, is not unforgivable.
But these evangelical words, even if they had some obscurity, which with the Lord's help I think has been explained, were not however of such difficulty as appears to be what follows. Therefore I say to you: Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. What, therefore, will happen to those whom the Church desires to gain? Surely, is a false hope promised to those corrected and coming to it from whatever error, in the remission of all sins? For who is not convicted of having spoken a word against the Holy Spirit before becoming a Christian or Catholic? Firstly, those who are called Pagans, worshipers of many gods and false idols, when they say that the Lord Christ performed miracles by magical arts; are they not like those who said He cast out demons by the prince of demons? Then, when daily they blaspheme our sanctification, what else do they blaspheme but the Holy Spirit? What about the Jews, who said this word about the Lord, from where did this man arise? Do they not still speak a word against the Holy Spirit, denying that He is in Christians, just as those denied that He was in Christ? For neither did they malign the Holy Spirit, nor saying that He did not exist; or indeed that He existed, but was not God, but was a creature; or that He was of no power to cast out demons. They did not speak such unworthy things, nor anything similar about the Holy Spirit. For the Sadducees denied the Holy Spirit; but the Pharisees defended that He existed against the heresy of the Sadducees, yet denied that He was in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they thought cast out demons by the prince of demons, although He cast them out by the Holy Spirit. And therefore both Jews and any heretics who confess the Holy Spirit, but when they deny that He is in the body of Christ, which is His one Church, undoubtedly Catholic; they are without a doubt similar to the Pharisees, who even then, if they confessed the Holy Spirit to exist, nevertheless denied that He was in Christ, whose works in casting out demons they attributed to the prince of demons. I omit that some heretics argue that the Holy Spirit Himself is not the creator but a creature, like the Arians, Eunomians, and Macedonians; or they entirely deny Him, so that they deny that God is Trinity, but assert that only God the Father exists, and He is sometimes called the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit, like the Sabellians, whom some call "Patripassians," because they affirm that the Father suffered; since they deny that the Father has a Son, they undoubtedly deny that the Holy Spirit exists. The Photinians also, who say that only the Father is God, and the Son is merely a man, completely deny that the Holy Spirit is a third Person.
It is evident, therefore, that both by Pagans and by Jews and by heretics the Holy Spirit is blasphemed. Surely then are they to be abandoned and without any hope counted, since it is a fixed sentence: He who speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one to come; and are to be thought that only those are liberated from the guilt of this most grievous sin, who from infancy are Catholics? For whoever has believed in the word of God to become Catholics, certainly either from pagans or from Jews or from heretics they have come into the grace and peace of Christ; for whom, if it is not forgiven what they have spoken a word against the Holy Spirit, it is vainly promised and preached to men that they should turn to God and receive remission of sins either in baptism or in the peace of the Church. For it was not said: "It shall not be forgiven him, except in baptism", but: It shall not be forgiven him, he says, neither in this age nor in the one to come.
The opinion of some concerning the sin of those baptized against the Holy Spirit is disapproved.
To some it seems that only those sin against the Holy Spirit who, having been washed in the baptism of regeneration in the Church and having received the Holy Spirit, afterward immerse themselves in some deadly sin like adultery, murder, or even defection from the name of Christian or from the Catholic Church, as if ungrateful for such a great gift of the Savior. But I do not know how this sense can be proven, since a place for repentance for certain crimes is not denied in the Church, and the Apostle says to correct even the heretics for this purpose: "Lest God perhaps grant them repentance to know the truth, and they recover themselves from the snares of the devil, held captive by him according to his will." For what is the purpose of correction without any hope of forgiveness? Finally, the Lord does not say: "Whoever, being a faithful Catholic, speaks a word against the Holy Spirit," but: "Whoever speaks," that is, "anyone who speaks, whoever speaks," it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the age to come. Therefore, whether he be a pagan, or a Jew, or a Christian, or a heretic from either the Jews or the Christians, or whatever other name he has of error, it is not said: "this one" or "that one," but: "Whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit," that is: "blasphemes the Holy Spirit," it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the future. Furthermore, if every error contrary to the truth and hostile to the Catholic peace, as we have shown above, speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, yet the Church does not cease to correct and gather from every error those who receive forgiveness of sins and the very Holy Spirit whom they had blasphemed, I think we have shown the great mystery of this significant question. Therefore, let us ask for the light of exposition from the Lord.
The most difficult question of all.
Therefore, brothers, perk up your ears to me, and your minds to the Lord. I say to your Charity: perhaps in all the holy Scriptures there is found no greater or more difficult question. Hence - to confess something about myself to you - I have always avoided the difficulty and trouble of this question in the sermons I gave to the people: not because I had nothing to think about it - for in such a great matter I would not neglect to ask, seek, knock - but because I did not think I could meet the demands of the understanding that was somewhat revealed to me with the words that came to me at the moment. However, today, hearing the readings from which the discourse was to be given to you, when the Gospel was being read, my heart was so moved that I believed God wanted you to hear something about this through my ministry.
Not every blasphemy against the Spirit is unforgivable.
Therefore, first I warn you to notice and understand that the Lord did not say: "Every blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven," nor did He say: "Whoever speaks any word against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven," but rather: "Whoever speaks a word." For if He had said that, nothing at all would remain for us to discuss; because if every blasphemy and every word spoken against the Holy Spirit would not be forgiven to men, the Church would gain no one at all from any kind of impiety of those who contradict the gift of Christ and the sanctification of the Church, whether Pagans, Jews, or any heretics, and even many among the uninstructed within the Catholic Church itself. But far be it that the Lord would say this, far be it, I say, that the Truth would say that any blasphemy or any word spoken against the Holy Spirit would have no forgiveness, neither in this age nor in the future.
There is a certain blasphemy that is unpardonable.
He indeed wished to exercise us by the difficulty of the question, not to deceive us by the falsity of the sentence. Therefore, it is not necessary that anyone should think that every blasphemy or every word said against the Holy Spirit will not obtain forgiveness; but it is certainly necessary that there is some blasphemy and some word, which, if said against the Holy Spirit, will never deserve forgiveness or pardon. For if we take it universally, who can be saved? But if we consider it as none, we contradict the Savior. Therefore, there is undoubtedly some blasphemy and some word which, if spoken against the Holy Spirit, will not be forgiven. However, the Lord wanted us to inquire what this word might be; hence, He did not specify it. He wanted it, I say, to be inquired, not denied. For the Scriptures are accustomed to speak in such a way that when something is said so that it is neither completely nor partially finished being said, it is not necessary that it can be understood completely, but also not partially misunderstood. Therefore, this sentence would be universally pronounced if it were said: "Every blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven," or: "Whoever speaks any word against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the future." On the other hand, it would be particularly pronounced if it were said: "Some blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." Because the sentence was pronounced neither universally nor particularly (for it was not said: "Every blasphemy against the Spirit," or: "Some blasphemy," but was only said indefinitely: "Blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven;" nor was it said: "Whoever speaks any word," or: "Whoever speaks some word," but indefinitely: "Whoever speaks a word"), it is not necessary to understand every blasphemy or every word, but it is indeed necessary to understand that some blasphemy and some word were intended by the Lord: although He did not wish to specify it, so that by asking, seeking, and knocking, if we receive any correct understanding, we may not hold it cheap.