Thursday, May 02, 2002 2:10 PM

Blaspheming the Holy Spirit

Vassula was recently shown a letter from a lady named Maria who once believed in the messages, but who now believes the messages are not from God.

Maria quoted from a Message: “to conceal My Voice is a mortal sin…” September 28, 2000 /msg/vasb1060.html

and also a letter from Vassula dated January 10, 2002:

“…what follows is a reminder to all those who fearlessly persecute the merciful call of God, even to call it evil, throwing mud on it that by doing so, they are blaspheming the Holy Spirit, committing the unforgivable sin.”

/forum/forum452.html

Maria goes on to conclude:

“… private revelations and apparitions are not dogma of faith and Catholics have the right not to believe in them…..

….since not believing in a private revelation is not a sin, then in no way can one have committed a MORTAL sin, endangering one’s soul. Affirming the contrary would be in contradiction with Jesus’ own words in the Gospel, basis for the recomendations of numerous saints and the teachings of the Church.”

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? Maria 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 Maria 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 Maria 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. Maria 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