Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
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The Problem:
- We have forgotten God
- More specifically, we have rejected the graces that the Holy Spirit is offering us
- How so?
- Catholics are skipping Mass, avoiding prayer, and neglecting moral teachings.
- These are blasphemies against the Holy Spirit.
- Because, we consciously or subconsciously reject the Holy Spirit through these actions.
Jesus said: And so I tell you, every one of men's sins and blasphemies will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And anyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but let anyone speak against the Holy Spirit and he will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next.
- Perhaps you don’t begin every day by cursing the Holy Spirit, but how have you avoided him? How have you rejected and neglected the grace of the Holy Spirit?
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The Solution: Point Two
- Part of the problem is that Catholics misunderstand the Holy Spirit, they find it difficult to understand the unseen graces and benefits of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is forgotten, hidden, and silent. Or so it seems!
- At the same time, on this day, July 13th, 1917, God offered us the solution when Mary said at Fatima, “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart, wishing to save it by these means.”
- The solution is his mother, Mary, who manifests the mission of the Spirit, making it accessible and tangible to us.
Fr. Rene Laurentin said, “What the Holy Spirit does as God, Mary does with Him: she participates with Him as His visible sign. Mary is the sensible visible presence of the Holy Spirit.”
Mary is not the Holy Spirit. They are two separate persons. The Holy Spirit is God and Mary is human. However, the Holy Spirit fashioned Mary to be the perfect human expression of the person and mission of the Spirit.
- She can bring the Holy Spirit to you in a way that is tangible and understandable. Afterall, who can’t understand the mission of a mother?
Mary is the perfect expression or sign of the Spirit. Yet, she is more than a sign. Mary is the sign that makes the Holy Spirit present and she is the sign that makes the mission of the Holy Spirit take place in us. Therefore, when we turn to Mary, the Holy Spirit brings Jesus to us and forms him within us. Mary is the sign that actually makes that happen. And that is the definition of a sacrament – so Mary is the sacrament of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we turn to Mary, we are turning to the Holy Spirit since they always act as one.
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Understanding Mary and the Holy Spirit: Point Three
- Now you don’t need to get caught up in the tedious definitions and theology of their relationship.
- What you do need to understand is this: Mary helps us to understand the Holy Spirit. St John Paul II writes:
“From the Cross the Savior wished to pour out upon humanity rivers of living water, that is, the abundance of the Holy Spirit. But he wanted this outpouring of grace to be linked to a mother’s face, his Mother’s.”
A little later John Paul says, “Calvary reveals the close and enduring link between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Mary as mother…The link between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the motherhood of Mary emerges again at Pentecost, when she awaited with the disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit…therefore, as the bond with Mary grows deeper, so the action of the Spirit in the life of the Church grows more fruitful.”
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The Holy Spirit Has Not Been Silent: Point Four
- At the Ascension we see the mission of Christ on Earth come to its culmination, and at Pentecost, the mission of the Holy Spirit on Earth begins. This is easy to understand, and yet, the mission seems unrepresented.
- We see all of the problems our lack of relationship with the Holy Spirit has caused, yet we don’t see the visible solution.
- But if we understand the joint mission of the Holy Spirit and Mary, we can also understand that the Apparitions of Mary are the Apparitions of the Holy Spirit and the tangible representation of the Spirit’s mission.
If Mary shows us the face of the Holy Spirit, as St. John Paul II just told us, then when Mary comes to us in all of her apparitions, it is really the Holy Spirit that is appearing to us and giving us the messages we need to hear. So what has the Holy Spirit been saying to us through Mary: return to God by prayer, especially the Rosary. Be more generous with your time in prayer. Return to God through the sacrament of Confession; make Mass the center of your life; conquer your addiction to the pleasures of this life that make us forget God by fasting. Read the messages and live the messages because this is what the Holy Spirit is saying to the world now.
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The Holy Spirit and The Rosary: Point Five
- The Rosary is the way Mary and the Holy Spirit form us to be more like God.
- St. John Paul II wrote: The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us (cf. Gal 4:19). Rosarium 15
- Now, 85-90% of all those who were baptized Catholic skip Mass frequently; most Catholic men and women have participated in contracepted sex; and most people say prayers but don’t spend time in friendship with Jesus in prayer. We might say we are religious, but we are not living that way and in so doing we have rejected the Holy Spirit.
- So what should we do?
- We should invest in huge billboards in the middle of Kansas that say HELL IS REAL and tell all our family and friends that that’s where they’re going.
- No no no
- We should invite people to meditate on the word of God through the Rosary so that Mary and the Holy Spirit can convert and transform us. For that is the plan God revealed on this day - to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, wanting to save the world by this means.