Guilty of Presumption of God's Mercy—Am I condemned?

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Dorothy_Brown

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I just recently became aware of how I have, at many times throughout my life, been guilty of a sin that through some online research this afternoon, I was able to identify as presumption of God’s mercy (which in my case was choosing to sin while telling myself, “Oh, I’ll just confess this later,” in spite of a deep-seated hunch that such a mindset was wrong.) When it occurred to me how serious this was, I decided to add it to the list of sins I was already taking to Confession this week, with the resolve to never insult God this way again. So I confessed it, guessing that I had committed it about 100 times throughout my life, and the priest absolved me. Except a few hours after I did my Penance, I got curious and did further research on presumption, which led me to discover that this is one of Aquinas’ six sins of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, the one thing Jesus said was unforgivable. Did the priest make a mistake?
 
No mistake i would be at peace with your absolution. Especially if u discussed the nature of the sin with the Priest.

God Bless♡
 
Final impenitence is the sin Aquinas names as “the unforgivable sin” or sin against the Holy Spirit.

Since you repented of the sin and confessed, you are forgiven. Only if you died unrepentant of a mortal sin would you be sinning against the Holy Spirit.

See the link below about Aquinus and his teaching…
http://www.ewtn.com/library/answers/unforgiv.htm
 
Condemned? No. Scrupulous? OCD? Quite possibly.

Look up “final impenitence” - in the catechism.

There you will have your answer.
 
Challoner and Bede both took the passages you cited as referring to a sin that could not be forgiven because the person was obstinate and would not repent of it. If they would repent, they would be forgiven.

http://www.drbo.org/chapter/47012.htm


Furthermore, the sin in question appears to be the rejection of God, for example by attributing Jesus’ miracles to the devil.

It does not appear you committed the type of sin the Gospel passages meant, and in any event you repented of the sin you did commit. The priest obviously saw no problem and absolved you. I don’t see why you would be trying to second guess his judgment.
 
Blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is to believe I can be saved without doing any work or believe there’s nothing I can do to be saved. If I truly believe that and I die believing that, then we have a problem. Even then, the question of full knowledge and deliberate consent remains. If I am not aware I committed a mortal sin, I am not subjectively guilty. A child that plays with dad’s gun and shoots his brother is objectively guilty of murder, but he cannot be imputed the subjective culpability. He is not a murderer. It was an accident.

We are only condemned if we die unrepentant. Confession and the Anointing of the Sick are very powerful Sacraments unto our salvation. I speak of Catholics here. And the Church has always taught that remission of sin can be obtained if we experience perfect contrition but are unable to confess our sins. God alone knows how many moribund men and women have made peace with Him at the eleventh hour, like the “good thief” St. Dismas who converted and “stole” the Sacred Heart’s forgiveness with two simple words: “Remember me”.

God is like the most loving of parents. Can a loving parent forget their child or reject their repentance? “A humble and contrite heart you will not spurn”, says the Scripture.

Be careful with scrupulosity.
 
Can someone knowledgeable about Aquinas explain to me how he took one Bible passage that seems to be focused on unrepentant people rejecting God (saying Jesus’ powers came from the devil) and expanded it into six sins that seem to have little to do with the original Bible passage?

I generally like Aquinas, but that seems like a big stretch.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Can someone knowledgeable about Aquinas explain to me how he took one Bible passage that seems to be focused on unrepentant people rejecting God (saying Jesus’ powers came from the devil) and expanded it into six sins that seem to have little to do with the original Bible passage?

I generally like Aquinas, but that seems like a big stretch.
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Aquinas, being a good Catholic theologian, knew that the deposit of faith goes beyond the Bible and reaches to the Church Fathers and other sources of Sacred Tradition.

Since I am not an expert in Thomism, I refer you to the section of the Summa where he addresses your quesstion, namely the objection that there be six sins against the Holy Spirit: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3014.htm
 
po18guy,

I tried to locate “final impenitence” in the CCC but coiuldn’t find it anywhere. Do you have the specific page or chapter?
 
Why not ask Father at your next confession? Final impenitence is dying in a state of mortal sin, and in which you refuse to repent, rejecting God’s mercy. Just that simple. If you lack those constitutive elements, then you should not worry. If you still worry, please consider looking into some form of therapy. You deserve - God wants you - to live in peace.
 
CCC…
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a8.htm
1864 "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven."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.
 
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1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell
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1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end.
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Also St. John Paul taught at the General Audience of 4/22/1998:
Christ is a divine judge with a human heart, a judge who wants to give life. Only unrepentant attachment to evil can prevent him from offering this gift, for which he did not hesitate to face death.
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Hope this helps!
 
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