Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, October 17th
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Blasphemy of the Spirit
What role does Christianity play in your life? Are you someone who uses your faith practically or only when it’s convenient? Do you practice your faith by regularly attending the sacraments, but nothing more? Are you devoted towards making your faith an intrinsic part of your identity? The truth is that, for so many of us, our faith does not define much of what we do unless we are actively thinking about it. Rarely do we consult our faith when making mundane or simple decisions in our everyday life; but our relationship with God should be something that is deeply interwoven in who we are. It should affect all of our decisions, drive all of our motivations, and guide our every thought. Quite literally, God must penetrate our innermost beings if we are going to unite ourselves to Him in this life.
If our faith is an intrinsic part of us, we naturally conform to the will of God, to Christ, and to his Church. Christ shares a very interesting lesson in today’s Gospel—he compares himself as the second person of the Trinity with the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He takes us through this comparison in steps. The first step is presenting the bare minimum that is expected of us if we are to consider ourselves as Christians: we must acknowledge him as who he is (The Son of Man) in order to be acknowledged by him. If we deny him, he will deny us. There is no pettiness in this relationship, but simply a respect for our free will and a reciprocity of the behavior we show to the Lord. As our heavenly bridegroom, he understands the mutual consent and reciprocity that is at the foundation of a marriage, human or divine. But Jesus also seems to understand that we will falter occasionally; we might sin, say something against him, or make typical human mistakes just as we would with any other relationship. These are things that can be forgiven as long as we seek forgiveness. But with the Holy Spirit, this is a different case. The Holy Spirit is the force behind the very essence of God. The Holy Spirit is the person of God who permeates the created world; He cannot be misunderstood, denied, or rejected because He is God as we fully know Him as human beings—in Spirit. There are only two possible relationships to have with the Holy Spirit: we can either blaspheme against Him, which Christ says is something unforgivable since an interaction with the Holy Spirit is interacting with the fullness of God’s glory, or we can allow the Holy Spirit to work entirely through us.
What does this blasphemy against the Spirit look like? Whether it was through heresy, through following misformed consciences, or especially in justifying erroneous and sinful behavior, we have often heard some individuals, even within the Church, referencing the Holy Spirit inappropriately. Instead of trusting and listening to the authority of the Church, which we avow as Catholics to be handed down to us by Christ and formed over time by the Holy Spirit, those in disagreement will rebel against these teachings and claim that they are listening to the Holy Spirit speaking to them directly. The Holy Spirit is not one’s conscience; to conflate the two is blasphemous. However, the Spirit does work in our decision making and will guide us to where He desires if we resign ourselves to Him. We can allow the Holy Spirit to work within us in little ways today. In the face of persecution for acknowledging Christ in your life, resign yourself to the Spirit. The Spirit will guide what you say and what you do because you have opened yourself to His influence. Refuse blasphemy, and embrace divine inspiration, even if it is as simple as letting the Holy Spirit speak and act through you in this life. However, we must always remember to distinguish the call of the Spirit and the voice of our own individual consciences.
