Reflection -- Gospel Reading 17 Oct 2015

The readings from today's Mass include:

Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say.  For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" in paragraph 1864:

1864 "Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin."¹³⁶ There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit.¹³⁷ Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.

Let us always be willing to repent of the evil we have done, clinging to the Cross of Christ, and changing immorality into Immortality.