The catholic church teaches that the only unforgivable sin is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and that is what Jesus is talking about here. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit can be best understood like this… The devils most favorite trick to play on people in grave sin, is to whisper in their ear, and say “you are such a bad person, that your sin is so bad that God will never forgive you, and that you should just give up because it is all hopeless.” The evil one wants you to despair, and to take your own life, rejecting God, because then he can keep you with him in hell forever, and deprive both you and God from an eternity together in heaven. The devils only goal in life is to separate us from God’s love, by tricking us into falling for his lies. Simply understood, the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is to believe those lies of the devil, to despair in those lies, and think that God’s love and mercy is not big enough to forgive you, and then eventually die in those lies.
But you don’t have to be in grave sin to fall for this same lie. Our modernist christian culture (which is itself, another lie from the devil) will try to teach you that because God is all loving and all forgiving, that there is nothing you could do to make God not forgive you. The nominal christian wants you to believe that His love is unconditional and there is nothing you could do that would change that. This is in-fact a lie hidden inside of truth, and because of that it sounds good to us. But God’s love is indeed conditional, and there is one thing that you can do that God cannot forgive…, and that is to never ask for His forgiveness. This is called the sin of presumption. Assuming that God will forgive you, and to live your life as if His forgiveness is unconditional, and always granted. God is indeed utterly perfect, and His love is indeed infinite. He is indeed all forgiving, and ever merciful. But all of that grace depends on one thing… YOU! You must first turn to Him, you must get on your knees and beg for His forgiveness. You then must gladly accept whatever penance that He puts on your heart, and you must do whatever is required to reconcile your sins. If you do this, and complete this process of forgiveness, that is what accepting the gift of the Holy spirit in your life looks like.
Anything short of that is to reject the Holy Spirit. And if you die in that state of being un-reconciled with God, then that is what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and you will not make it to heaven! I know that that is bold claim, but I can prove it…, We know that Heaven is the total and complete giving and receiving of love between you and the Father, and all of the other souls with God in Heaven. It is the most intimate relationship that you could ever imagine, higher than the most perfect marriage here on earth, higher than the love of a parent for a child, and higher than any friendship you have ever had. But this type of relationship is only possible through absolute and total reconciliation between you and God, there cannot be anything between you that separates you. Do you think that you can reject god even a little, hold back your love just a little, or simply even just take Him for granted…, while at the same time participate in the complete and total exchange of perfect love with Him? No! You must want it more than anything else, and you must do whatever is required to attain it, anything less than that, would make you unclean. And Jesus told us what happens to those that are unclean… In another gospel verse we hear the story of the wedding feast and the guest that is not wearing a wedding garment (meaning he is unclean), and he is cast out into the darkness, where there is wailing and grinding of teeth. We must not allow ourselves to believe this cultural lie that God’s love is unconditional, because it actually hinges on just one condition, that you must first ask for His forgiveness.
The Holy Spirit is always working in you, and all around you, all the time, trying to get you to make that turn to God, the turn that will in-fact give you the forgiveness that you need, and ultimately get you into heaven, and assure your place in eternity with God. But you must make that turn, you must choose Him over all of the things of this world, and you must put Him first in your life. If you can do this, if you can strive to do good and reject evil, and you can die in loving friendship with God, then you will be able to free yourself of those last attachments to sin (in purgatory), and eventually hear those most wonderful of all words… “well done my good and faithful servant, enter into my glory!”
