Is there an unforgivable sin? Or a certain limit of sins that God forgvies?

[sadness99]

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Is there/what is the Unforgivable Sin?​

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Hello everyone. A couple months ago I decided to learn more about the faith. Something early on I learned was that God’s mercy is abundant and that there is no sin he will not forgive with repentance. However in Matthew 12:31 it says “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.” And blasphemy against the holy spirit would be sins like despair,presumption, obstinacy, resisting truth, and envy of another’s spiritual welfare. So that means that there ARE unforgivable sins? I saw a St Alphonsus’s sermon on The number of sins beyond God pardons no more. I think the sermon is focused on presumption so is presumption the unforgivable sin? I’ve committed presumption so many times and still do and I am so scared that I’m damned. So how does this work? If one commits these sins without knowledge are they forgiven? What if these sins are committed with full knowledge that they’re blasphemies against the holy spirit? What if these sins are committed multiple times even when the sinner knows they’re blasphemies against the holy spirit? Can someone explain please?

 

[Wesrock]

Rejecting God’s mercy and refusing to repent is the only unforgivable sin. The Church calls it final impenitence.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

1864 “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” 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. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.

 

[sadness99]

but what about the blasphemies against the holy spirit didn’t Jesus they’re unforgivable?

 

[Wesrock]

but what about the blasphemies against the holy spirit didn’t Jesus they’re unforgivable?

This would be rejecting the forgiveness of sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit, and that unto death. If a person ever desires repentence and forgiveness then they are open to God’s mercy.

 

[Dorothy]

Wesrock gave you the correct answer. When God’s mercy is not accepted and repentance is not given to Him that is rejecting God’s forgiveness. There are no limits to His mercy.

 

[sadness99]

but what about st alphonsus’s sermon the number of sins beyond which god pardons no more?

 

[ProdglArchitect]

but what about st alphonsus’s sermon the number of sins beyond which god pardons no more?

I just skimmed over that sermon and I believe it has more to do with the nature of the sinner than the actual number of sins.

If I, as a sinner, put off repentance and seeking God’s mercy, saying that I will do that later, then God will not necessarily allow me “later.” If you live your life denying God and continuing to sin rather than react to His persistent call to repentance, then God will grant you your desire to be separated from Him.

Even if the saint is peaking about a specific number, bear in mind that just because it came from the mouth of a saint doesn’t make it infallible.

ON THE NUMBER OF SINS BEYOND WHICH GOD PARDONS NO MORE

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

but what about st alphonsus’s sermon the number of sins beyond which god pardons no more?

Also, St. Alphonsus is one saint among thousands. Not saying he wasn’t a wise and holy person, but that doesn’t mean that everything he ever said or did was accurate. He was still a flawed human being capable of getting stuff wrong.

 

[sadness99]

Alright thank you. You’re right, I think I read somewhere that Thomas Aquinas denied Immaculate Conception. Goes to show how some of the most great doctors of the church aren’t immune to being wrong. Thanks again

 

[oliver109]

I think St Alphonsus had in mind that a sinner can become so hardened by sin that it can effectively find sin so appealing that it can never want to repent, God would not be able to pardon that type of sinner after they die. Hopefully that would rule me out as i don’t find sin especially appealing!

 

[White_Tree]

What that verse (Matthew 12:31) is referring to is not so much a sin that God cannot forgive you for, but rather a sin for which the consequences cannot be nullified. “Forgiveness” in this sense is used more along the lines of what we’d mean when we say we “forgive” someone’s debt. It’s a debt that cannot be cancelled. It’s not that God holds some sort of grudge against you.

As for the nature of the sin itself, Paul says it’s fornication:

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? – 1 Cor 6:18

Fornication in this context refers to any loss of the sexual energy, even unconsciously. I’ll give you an example to help clear things up.

One of my old friends is a very holy mystic, with a great deal of spiritual experience. He was completely chaste, but as a result he was childless, and his wife very much wanted a child. She asked him over and over again, for years, until eventually she prevailed and he agreed to conceive a child with her. They performed the act once, and they succeeding in conceiving a child, but as a result he lost all of his spiritual treasure. He lost his ability to meditate, his lost his ability to go into the spirit (cf. Rev 1:10, 2 Cor 12:2), and he could no longer feel the presence of God within.

That was from performing the act once, with his wife, in order to conceive a child.

He eventually recovered those spiritual treasures, but it took him years and a great deal of suffering.

But it’s not that God didn’t have mercy on him. It’s more like a law of spiritual gravity. If you jump off a cliff, you’re going to hit the bottom even if God forgives you for jumping. If you murder someone, God’s forgiveness does not bring the victim back to life. The effects of your actions remain. Similarly, the spiritual effects of the release of that energy cannot be cancelled out even if God forgives you.

Of course, most of us are already in the state that my friend found himself in when he broke his very rigid practice of chastity, because the type of behavior that can destroy a mystical practice is viewed as normal and healthy for an ordinary person. Thus, most people in the world are not mystics.

So it’s not about whether God holds a grudge against you or not, and it’s not about any limits on God’s mercy. Jesus and Paul were simply explaining a law of spiritual gravity to their disciples so they could avoid a common pitfall people encounter when cultivating a mystical communion with God.

 

[edward_george1]

They performed the act once , and they succeeding in conceiving a child, but as a result he lost all of his spiritual treasure.

Are you saying that the marital act is somehow wrong or opposed to the spiritual life? I would think that if someone is married, then doing the things proper to married couples is what makes them holy. One’s spiritual treasure comes from living out his vocation.

Of course, most of us are already in the state that my friend found himself in when he broke his very rigid practice of chastity, because the type of behavior that can destroy a mystical practice is viewed as normal and healthy for an ordinary person. Thus, most people in the world are not mystics.

Why did this person get married at all, if marriage was such a detriment to his soul?

Sex within marriage that is open to life is not unchaste. That is the very definition of marital chastity. It sounds like your friend has some very odd ideas.

-Fr ACEGC

 

[White_Tree]

Are you saying that the marital act is somehow wrong or opposed to the spiritual life? I would think that if someone is married, then doing the things proper to married couples is what makes them holy. One’s spiritual treasure comes from living out his vocation.

No, I’m not saying it’s wrong. I’m saying that certain types of mystical experience have as a prerequisite a very rigid form of chastity. A person can still live a very holy life without that. But there is a difference between someone living a good Christian life, and someone like St. John, St. Paul, or the man Paul mentioned in 2 Cor 12:2.

Why did this person get married at all, if marriage was such a detriment to his soul?

The marriage itself was not a detriment to his soul. However, the loss of his sexual energy that one time damaged his spiritual practice. Both he and his wife were cultivating a similar mystical practice and were of the same mind when they got married. But over the years, the desire to be a mother started to pull at her.

Sex within marriage that is open to life is not unchaste. That is the very definition of marital chastity.

Perhaps chastity or unchastity was the wrong word there. But what I meant was the emission of that energy, regardless of the context. It’s not meant to be a condemnation of any sort, and if that’s what came across in my post, I’m grateful for your correction. I certainly don’t mean to condemn normal marital relations. I only mean to point out that if mystical experience is your goal, a much more rigid form of “chastity” (for lack of a better word) is a necessity.

It sounds like your friend has some very odd ideas.

Perhaps. But I know several mystics like him, and they all affirm the same thing about “chastity” (in terms of not losing that energy, ever, even in dreams). He, among them, happened to share with me the experience he went through several decades ago, losing his mystical connection with God, and the struggle to regain what he had lost. Most of them, however, simply never had children.