What is the Blasphemy to the Holy Spirit
Vassula was recently shown a letter from a lady who once
believed in the messages, but who now believes the messages are not from God.
The lady quoted from a Message: "to conceal My Voice is a mortal sin..." (September
28, 2000) and also a letter from Vassula dated (January 10, 2002
Below is Vassula's response to these objections:
It is a mortal sin if one calls evil, any good operation coming out of the
Mercy of God; also if one tries to hush down God's Voice as well because it will
prevent souls from knowing God's Will and it will cause many souls who could
have profited from God's work of mercy and be saved, to perish. When God gives a
gift, if it is the healing gift, the word of knowledge, prophecy or whatever, it
is always for the benefit of the Church and He gives these gifts from His
boundless Mercy. Now when one does not believe at all in the gifts God has
given, these people automatically diminish God's Mercy in their heart, not the
person who has the gift or the gift itself, but the Mercy of God.
It becomes a blasphemy towards the Holy Spirit WHEN ONE JUDGES the operation
of God as evil and takes it as his duty to persecute it, calumniate it and
condemn it, attributing it to deceiving spirits. Then these people are
committing a blasphemy because they call evil what is in fact a divine operation
that comes from the Holy Spirit. An example is in Scriptures when one of the
miracles Jesus did was called evil and that it came from Beelzebub. What did He
say then? The lady seems to know the Scriptures but she did not understand this
part and connect it to the Merciful works of God.
Saints like St. Symeon, St. Catherine of Sienna, St Silouan, and others have
confirmed it. In St Gertrude, Jesus shows His severity as well for the ones who
would be ready to calumniate His divine work in her (the writings). Jesus had
asked her to publish His sayings and she was hesitant for fear of calumny and
disbelief from people, then the Lord said to her: "As for those hearts so evil
that they should want to calumniate my gifts, may their sins be on their own
heads, while you remain blameless..." (Scriptures say that the severity of God
is as great as His mercy).
The Eternal Father to St Catherine: "By these and by other
sins men fall into FALSE JUDGEMENT, as I will explain to you below. They are
continually being scandalised by My Works, which are all just, and all performed
in truth through love and mercy. With this false judgment and with the poison of
envy and pride, the works of My Son were slandered and unjustly judged, and with
lies did His enemies say: "This man works by virtue of Beelzebub." Thus wicked
men, standing in self-love, impurity, pride and avarice, and founded in envy,
and in perverse rashness with impatience, are for ever scandalised at Me and at
My servants, whom they judge to be feignedly practising the virtues, because
their heart is rotten, and, having spoilt their taste, good things seem evil to
them, and bad things, that is to say disorderly living, seem good to
them."
If one does not believe in a private or prophetic revelation and leaves it
alone, this is another story. They do not give their JUDGEMENT so it is not a
mortal sin, but it becomes a mortal sin if one purposely calls evil what is holy
and persecutes God's merciful work. St. Paul said that these people are called
"Theomakhi", meaning fighters of God. If the lady quotes Scriptures she should also
learn a few other things and especially the one our Master said about the good
tree and the good fruit.
Here is what St. Symeon says: "Brethren and fathers, As the most holy oracle
of the Saviour says, "Every sin will be forgiven men, but he who blasphemes
against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age
to come." Let us then inquire what is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is to attribute His operations to the opposite
spirit, as says Basil the Great. How does one do this? Whenever one sees
miracles brought about by the holy Ghost or any of the other divine gifts in any
of his brethren - that is, compunction, or tears, or humility, or divine
knowledge, or a word of wisdom from on high, or anything else that is bestowed
by the Holy Ghost on those who love God - and says that this comes from the
deceit of the devil. But he also blasphemes against the Holy Ghost who works in
them who says that those who, as sons of God, are led by the divine Spirit and
perform the commandments of their God and Father, are being deceived by demons.
This is what the Jews of old said against the Son of God."
Here is what St. Silouan the Anthonite said: "By 'not accepting' (the gift
given by our Lord to someone), the Christian guards himself against the danger
of mistaking demonic machinations for Divine inspiration, and thus "giving heed
to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils", and rendering divine homage to
demons. By "not rejecting" one avoids another peril - namely, attributing divine
action to demons and so falling into the sin of "blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit", like the Pharisees who declared that Christ "doth not cast out devils,
but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. The second peril is more dreadful
than the first, since the soul may become accustomed to rejecting grace, to
detesting it, and grow so used resisting God that she will thus define herself
on the eternal plane, so that her sin "shall not be forgiven, neither in this
world, neither in the world to come." Whereas the soul that promptly recognises
her wrong-doing, through repentance attains salvation, for no sin is
unforgivable except the sin that is not repented of."
Here is what Jesus said to Maria Valtorta when people would say, "if this
work is from God, He will take care of it..." and turn their back to his work.
Jesus said: "They would do well to meditate the page of the
Gospel where I, Master of masters, incarnate Wisdom, Word and Truth, say that
the sins against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven. And in truth this is
work of the Spirit of God, of the Love, of the Father and of the Son, of the
Spirit who knows every truth and comes to speak the truth to the people caught
in today's turmoil."
And finally here is from Prof. Niels Christian Hvidt, theologian at the
Gregorian University in Rome from his published thesis on prophecy.
This is taken from the chapter "prophecy in the Early Church":
"The faithful are admonished to be careful not to judge the prophets: 'Do not
try to judge any prophet speaking under the power of the Spirit. For every sin
shall be forgiven, but THAT sin shall not be forgiven. The Didache firmly warns
not to judge those that carry all the signs of being sent by the Spirit of God,
as this would mean blaspheming against the Holy Spirit - the only non-forgivable
sin (Mk 3:23). The one who speaks against a true prophet risks committing the
sin against the Holy Spirit, since the true prophet speaks by the power of the
Spirit.'"
Had I more time, I would find more references on this subject but for the
time being this will do.
If the lady is interested and is looking for the truth I recommend her to buy
the saints books and read them for herself. Tradition follows the Scriptures.
St. Catherine's book is about her dialogue with the Eternal Father. Usually I
never answer to such critics and I let these go by since I am not here to try to
convince. People can choose to believe or not, but they should be aware of the
words of our Lord: "Do not judge lest you will be judged..." especially when it
comes to false judgment.
Unfortunately many people believe they know everything (as Our Lady said in
Medjugorje) but in reality they know nothing. Also a bit of humility is needed
in all of this. The lady should not believe that she knows better than all the
theologians who read True Life in God back and forth several times to draw out
passages and write their own spiritual books. She should not believe that she
has discovered something the theologians overlooked or have not understood. This
is a typical temptation from the evil one, and that is to place oneself above
the others. We all have to learn.
In God, Vassula
|