19th October, 2013
Jesus speaks of sin against the Holy Spirit in the Gospel today (Lk 12:10; also look up Mt 12:31-32). This is one of the most frequently asked questions among the youth at discussions. Moral theologians and Scripture Scholars have tried to make sense of it and one familiar interpretation given is this- the sin against the Holy Spirit, considered 'unforgivable' by Jesus, is the sin of presumption! Theologically, presumption is a vice against the virtue of hope; in simple words it is giving up hope! When one gives up hope, he or she crosses the human limits to decide that God is incapable of acting on his or her behalf and at that point the person loses any kind of needed disposition to receive anything from God, including forgiveness! It is not that God does not want to forgive, but the person has removed himself or herself from the possibility of receiving it. The first reading says of Abraham, that "hoping against hope, he believed"(Rom 4:18)...and thus he received all that blessings that he did! Our faith should be founded on Hope, and that is the fundamental attitude of a person of the Spirit.