Hebrews 6:4-6

[Lazerlike42]

What is the Catholic understanding of this?

 

[Todd_Easton]

Some different Catholic interpretations of these verses can be found in the 1859 Haydock Catholic New Testament Commentary, here.

 

[tradcatmel]

my bible gives this interpretation.

It is impossible for such as have fallen after baptism, to be again baptised; and very hard for such as have apostatized from the faith, after having received many graces to return again to the happy state from which they fell.

DDouay-Rheims version

 

[adnauseum]

Faith is an interior act of the will, it is a decision.

Theologians say the only decision comparable to the acceptance of faith is the decision to marry a specific person. One enters, as Kierkegaard quoted, in fear and trembling.

Christ says that the decision of marriage is irrevokable, so it shouldn’t surprise us that the decision to accept God’s grace is irrevokable.

Once the decision to accept God’s gift of grace has been made freely, then there are only two paths open. Either you later find that the decision was made in a state of ignorance, as in marriage, or you willfully, openly, choose to reject God’s grace.

Some theologians say willfully rejecting God’s grace is the one unforgivable sin that Jesus referred to as blashpheming the Holy Spirit.

 

[Fidelis]

Lazerlike42:

What is the Catholic understanding of this?

Here is how the Catechism of the Catholic Church comments on these verses:

679 Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He “acquired” this right by his cross. The Father has given “all judgment to the Son”. Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.

598 In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of her saints, the Church has never forgotten that “sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured.” Taking into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, the Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often burdened the Jews alone:

We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross, those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in this case is greater in us than in the Jews. As for them, according to the witness of the Apostle, “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we in some way seem to lay violent hands on him
.
Nor did demons crucify him; it is you who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.

 

[TOME]

I think there is a danger here, in these verses, of seeing a possible refutation of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. By it’s self it seems that why but in the context of the letter it does not.

About this passage, it shows that even an individual who has received all these graces can of his own Free Will choose to reject them totally from their life. And if they do reject the Christian Life, even having experience God’s love for them through the Church, it will wake an act of their Free Will to return - but that seems almost an impossible thing to happen.

Instead of going on to say with God all things are possible, the author goes on to describe metaphorically just what a terrible sin apostocy is which is why he then proceeds to say (my parapharsing) ‘Let’s not talk about that, let’s talk about what you should be doing’. To go into a discourse on God’s Mercy for sinners would have been off the topic he was dwelling on the faithfulness of God to keeps His covenant (Old and New).