Catholic view of Matthew 12:30-32

[StephenL]

Ok, so my question Matthew 12:30-32 is when Jesus says" speaks against the Holy Spirit shall niether be forgiven in this world nor the next."
Does Jesus mean that whoever continues to speak against The Holy Spirit and not recognize Good and repent. I look at the words in this verse and it freaks me out. Then I look at the Catechism and I looking at it. I am just looking for the Truth. I know the Catholic Church possess it. I just need to see it.
Does the Catechism contradict the Bible?
Thanks for any time looking at this.
God Bless!

 

[Della]

It is obstinate refusal to believe when one knows the full truth and has no other mitigating conditions that would make one not culpable of this sin. I refer to this: haydock1859.tripod.com/id27.html. Scroll down to verse 30 for the fuller commentary.

And no, the Bible and the Church never contradict one another. This is not possible since both are of God and both are inspired by the Holy Spirit.

 

[R_C]

The Catechism could never contradict Sacred Scripture Christ established a Church whose shepherds act with His power: “as the Father has sent me, so I send you”, “those who hear you hear me, those who reject you reject me”. Of this Church the Scripture speaks as “the pillar and foundation of the truth”, “to which God adds daily those that are to be saved”.

What the Lord was referring to was in answer to what had been told to Him. Read the chapter.

A man was brought to Him, who was possessed by a kind of demon that is very hard to exorcise, namely one that is “deaf and mute” in his behavior. The Lord immediately drove him away from the man, who was fully restored.

To this, some replied: “it is not this man who casts out the devil, but Beelzebub, the prince of the devils”. They denied that God’s power was at work, and insulted the Holy Spirit by attributing that action to the prince of the fallen angels.

To this the Lord Jesus - in whose name the apostles could drive away demons, as we read in Mk 9:38 and Lk 10:17 - replied:

…] if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.

But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you. …]

For this reason I say unto you, every sin and injurious speaking shall be forgiven to men, but speaking injuriously of the Spirit shall not be forgiven to men. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.

Church Father St. John Chrysostom would comment on this:

having defended Himself, and refuted their objection, and proved the vanity of their shameless dealings, He proceeds to alarm them.

What now is it that He affirms? Many things have ye spoken against me; that I am a deceiver, an adversary of God. These things I forgive you on your repentance, and exact no penalty of you; but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven, no, not to those who repent. And how can this be right? For even this was forgiven upon repentance. Many at least of those who said these words believed afterward, and all was forgiven them.

What is it then that He saith? That this sin is above all things unpardonable. Why so? Because Himself indeed they knew not, who He might be, but of the Spirit they received ample experience. For the prophets also by the Spirit said whatever they said; and indeed all in the Old Testament had a very high notion of Him.

What He saith, then, is this: Be it so: ye are offended at me, because of the flesh with which I am encompassed: can ye say of the Spirit also, We know it not? And therefore is your blasphemy unpardonable…Now as to your blasphemies against me, before the cross, I forgive them: and the daring crime too of the cross itself; neither shall ye be condemned for your unbelief alone. (For neither had they, that believed before the cross, perfect faith. And on many occasions He even charges them to make Him known to no man before the Passion; and on the cross He said that this sin was forgiven them.) But as to your words touching the Spirit, they will have no excuse.

Wherefore? Because this is known to you; and the truths are notorious which you harden yourselves against. For though ye say that ye know not me; yet of this surely ye are not ignorant, that to cast out devils, and to do cures, is a work of the Holy Ghost. It is not then I only whom ye are insulting, but the Holy Ghost also. Wherefore your punishment can be averted by no prayers…

The 1811 Commentary of Father Haydock reads (emphasis is mine):

It was their duty to have a knowledge of the Holy Ghost, and they obstinately refused to admit what was clear and manifest. Though they were ignorant of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and might take him to be merely the son of a poor artizan, they could not be ignorant that the expelling of demons, and miraculous healing of all diseases, were the works of the Holy Ghost. If, therefore, they refused to do penance for the insult offered to the Spirit of God, in the person of Christ, they could not hope to escape condign punishment.

they who for want of sufficient instruction, were invincibly ignorant that Christ was God, might more easily be brought to the true knowledge and faith of Christ, and so receive forgiveness of their sins: but if he shall speak against the Holy Ghost, i.e. against the Spirit of God in Christ, and shall oppose the known truth, by attributing to the devil that doctrine, and those miracles, which evidently were from the Spirit and the hand of God, that sin shall never be forgiven him.

But how is this consistent with the Catholic doctrine and belief, that there is no sin any man commits of which he may not obtain pardon in this life? To this I answer, that in what manner soever we expound this place,** it is an undoubted point of Christian faith, that there is no sin which our merciful God is not ready to pardon; no sin, for the remission of which, God hath not left a power in his Church**, as it is clearly proved by those words, Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, &c.

St. Chrysostom therefore expounds these words, shall not be forgiven them, to imply no more, than shall scarcely, or seldom be forgiven; that is, it is very hard for such sinners to return to God, by a true and sincere repentance and conversion; so that this sentence is like to that (Matthew xix. 26.) where Christ seems to call it an impossible thing for a rich man to be saved.

St. Augustine, by this blasphemy against the Spirit, understands** the sin of final impenitence**, by which an obstinate sinner refuseth to be converted, and therefore lives and dies hardened in his sins.