ONLY THOSE ‘IN UNION WITH’

It begins when one feels ‘more worthy’ than the one chosen.

When the unholy spirits of jealousy and envy enter a man’s soul he becomes capable of the most despicable acts against his brother. We see it being played out again today in the Church.

Throughout Salvation History we can see the damage, destruction, and death that resulted from surrendering to these evil beings.

The seeds of betrayal were planted in Lucifer (his name means ‘light’) at the vision of The Woman (Gen 3:15) who would bear the Light into the world.

The seeds of murder were planted in Cain at the sight of his brother’s sacrifice being favored by God.

Rachel envied Leah. Jacob’s sons were jealous of Joseph. Saul was envious of David; Korah of Moses…

… and Judas envied Peter. He’s the fellow hanging back from the rest in this Nicolas Poussin painting. Judas is depicted with the green face of envy as Christ confers all of His authority onto Peter.

Peter of all people! The uneducated, misspoken, fish-stinking, bumbling fool, who betrayed Christ three times!

And thus began the Iscariot’s fall from grace.

Martin Luther took the same downward path as Judas 501 years ago today, just as Marcel Lefebvre did in 1976. They both took many with them, mostly those who ‘were educated’ and ‘knew them personally’. 

The great ‘unforgiveable’ sin against the Holy Spirit is believing that we have a better idea than God. It is unforgivable because pride prevents us from asking for forgiveness. 

In Mark 3:28-30 we read: 

“Truly I tell you, all sins and blasphemes will be forgiven for the sons of men. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they [the Pharisees] were saying, ‘He has an evil spirit’.” 

Today’s neo-Pharisees accuse the Vicar of Christ of the same. But Jesus assures us that there is no sin that God cannot forgive. We need only recognize the sin for what it is, repent, and ask. 

We pray that those of the past, and those of the present, who commit the sin against the Holy Spirit, recognize their sin and repent before the moment of death.