Word to the Wise
Monday, January 23, 2017 - Monday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 9:15, 24-28 and Mark 3:22-30]"Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that peopleutter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin." For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit." [Mark]
Can anything be beyond the mercy of God? We have just concluded the Jubilee Year of Mercy in which Pope Francis has continually preached to us about the wideness of God's mercy. He extended a special permission (which we priests in the U.S.A. have had for a long time) to priests around the world to give absolution for participating in an elective abortion, and made that permission indefinite. In his apostolic exhortation, AMORIS LETITIA, he has offered a way for Catholics in irregular marital situations to return to full communion - another extended mercy. However, in today's gospel, we discover that human beings can make it impossible for God to extend mercy if we believe that Jesus or the Holy Spirit is a devil ("an unclean spirit"). The scribes from Jerusalem represented the elite Jewish religious authority of the times. In today's scene, we see how they reject Jesus by calling him a disciple of Beelzebub (prince of devils). Note that this scene takes place in between his family's decision that "he is out of his mind" and their arrival to take him (tomorrow's gospel).
If we set our minds against God by defining God to be opposite of what God truly is, we are doing something very wrong and untrue. If we cannot receive forgiveness for this, it is because we do not want it. The old expression puts it well: "There are none so blind as those who will not see." Some of the "New Atheists" have come pretty close to this. We can only hope that God's mercy can find a crack in that armor. In the meantime, we can examine ourselves to see how merciful we are. Is there an "unforgiveable" person in our life? Have we become one? If we declare ourselves or someone else "unforgiveable" we are setting ourselves against the example of Jesus and his merciful love. That is not a good place to be. AMEN
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