Sins Against the Holy Spirit

352. According to Sacred Scripture.¹ Christ the Lord himself speaks concerning the sin against the Holy Spirit,² teaching that it is not remitted: But he who shall have spoken against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be remitted to him, neither in this age nor in the future.³

a. By the name of the sin against the Holy Spirit, Christ the Lord designates that sin of the Pharisees by which they attributed to the demon, the unclean spirit, the casting out of demons done by the power of God and known as such, from hatred and malice. Therefore the sin against the Holy Spirit is committed when manifest divine works, which the Holy Spirit works for confirming the faith or for converting sinners, are attributed to the demon from malice of heart.

a. This sin is said to be committed against the Holy Spirit both because a sin which proceeds from hatred and malice is committed in a peculiar way against divine goodness, but goodness is attributed to the Holy Spirit; and because it ascribes to the devil works of the Holy Spirit, of which sort are miracles.

b. Therefore the sin against the Holy Spirit from the mind of the Lord is not any sin whatever which is committed for some peculiar reason against the Holy Spirit, but that one thing described above, when from malice of heart manifest divine works are attributed to the demon. In our time a similar sin is committed by those who, from malice of heart, ascribe miraculous works which are done by manifest divine power for converting sinners not to God but to the forces of nature.

b. He does not say that this sin cannot be remitted, but that it indeed is remissible, yet in fact is never remitted: it shall not be remitted. But he says this either because he foresaw that those who committed this sin would never do penance, or because God in punishment of such great malice decreed not to give them graces so efficacious that they would in fact be converted.

Those do not explain the irremissibility of this sin as is fitting who teach that ordinarily, for the most part, it is not remitted, because those sinning against the Holy Spirit rarely convert themselves; but it must be held that this sin is so excepted by Christ the Lord from the number of others, all of which are remitted, that it is never remitted. But it must likewise be held that in the concrete it can never be established whether someone has committed this irremissible sin, and therefore hope of pardon must never be taken away from anyone, provided he wishes to do penance.

¹ Knabenbauer, Commentarius in quatuor s. evangelia (Paris: Lethielleux, 1892), I, p. 487 ff.

² Matt. 12, 31 f.; Mark 3, 29; Luke 12, 10.

³ Matt. 12, 32. Cf. 1 John 15, 16 f.

353. According to the doctrine of theologians. 1. Any grave sin can be called a sin against the Holy Spirit, insofar as it is opposed to holiness, whose author is the Holy Spirit. Certain sins in species can also be signified by this name, which are committed in a peculiar way against the Holy Spirit, and indeed: a. blasphemy against the Most Holy Trinity and especially against the person of the Holy Spirit; b. final impenitence, which is voluntary withdrawal from God with the purpose of persisting in sin until death and of pertinaciously resisting the motions of truth and grace; c. any sin committed from explicit malice or with voluntary contempt of God and of his supreme dominion.

2. From various places of St. Augustine explaining the words of the Lord related above, six sins against the Holy Spirit are numbered by the scholastics, after Peter Lombard and Alexander of Hales: a. presumption; b. despair; c. attack upon known truth; d. envy of fraternal grace; e. obstinacy; f. impenitence.

It is clear that these sins have not been deduced from the words of Christ; indeed among these there is none which agrees with the sin against the Holy Spirit concerning which Christ speaks. But they are called sins against the Holy Spirit because in some peculiar way they are committed against the Holy Spirit.

3. Sins against the Holy Spirit are called irremissible; nevertheless those six sins can be called irremissible only in this sense, that they are rarely remitted, and this indeed not because God is unwilling to remit them, but because man, on account of hardness of heart and blindness of mind, rarely disposes himself to true penance.

He who, defining sins against the Holy Spirit according to the mind of the scholastics, wishes at the same time to affirm that it belongs to the nature of the sin against the Holy Spirit that it truly is irremissible, must teach these two things at the same time: a. that the sin against the Holy Spirit is properly only one, namely final impenitence, or voluntary and pertinacious resistance against truth and grace until death; but that the other five are nothing except diverse modes by which impenitence manifests itself, or diverse grades by which man gradually slides down into impenitence. b. He must teach that the reason on account of which this sin is not remitted is situated not in the gravity of the sin, nor in a defect of divine power and mercy, but in the nature of the sin itself, inasmuch as it in fact pertinaciously resists divine grace, and therefore renders remission impossible, since God does not justify one unwilling.

Corollary I. One who neglects penance obligatory from the virtue of penance commits the sin of impenitence; one who omits penance prescribed from another source sins against that virtue from which penance is prescribed.

Corollary II. The faithful can indeed be taught the obligation of not deferring penance for a long time; nevertheless no statement should be made about a span of time which would constitute grave sin. Besides this, they should be stirred up to elicit perfect contrition every morning and evening, and also soon after committing a grave sin.

I. NAME. —Broadly speaking, every sin is a sin against the Holy Ghost, because every sin is opposed to sanctity, of which the Holy Ghost is the author. But the name "sin against the Holy Ghost" is specifically applied to a certain class of transgressions described in Holy Scripture. When the Pharisees attributed the miracles of Christ to the devil, Our Lord declared: "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven; and whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come."¹ l Here is a clear distinction between blasphemy against the Son of man, i. e., Jesus Christ, and blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. To be scandalized at the former in His lowly human appearance is pardonable,² but to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, who manifests Him- self through the miracles of Christ, is a sign of malice and obstinacy and therefore unpardonable.

¹ Matth. IX, 34; XII, 24, 31 sq.; Mark III, 28-30; Luke XII, 10.

² Matth. XI, 4; cfr. Matth. XXVI, 31.—St. Thomas, Summa Theol, 2a 2ae, qu. 14, art. 1, ad 2: "Sin against the Son of Man will be a sin from ignorance or from weakness."

2. DEFINITION. —Hence there is a class of transgressions which may be embraced under the collective term, "sin against the Holy Ghost/' They all involve a deliberate and obstinate opposition to the manifestations of the Holy Spirit as witnessed in the exercise of Christ's power over nature and the demons, and continued in the miracles of grace. He still works in the souls of the faithful. Consequently, the sin against the Holy Ghost consists in openly opposing divine Revelation and the operation of the Holy Spirit both in and outside of man, more particularly in deliberately despising or rejecting supernatural grace. And as the Holy Ghost operates in souls especially through the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, the sin against the Holy Ghost is opposed to these three virtues in particular. With this idea in mind, St. Augustine and Peter Lombard enumerated six distinct sins against the Holy Ghost, which may, however, be reduced to one, i. e., deliberate apostasy or final impenitence (impoenitentia finalis).³ The other five are merely preliminary acts of impenitence, which may be forgiven, whereas final impenitence is by its very nature unpardonable (peccatum irremissibile)⁴ not because it is beyond the reach of divine mercy, or on account of its objective enormity, but because the impenitent man deliberately rejects grace. He who sins against the Holy Ghost cannot obtain forgiveness for the simple reason that he refuses to be forgiven.⁵

³ Cfr. Is. XXII, 14. —St. Jerome, In Is., VII, c. 22 (Migne, P. L., XXIV, 272). —St. Augustine, Serm., 71 (a/, ii De Verbis Domini), c. 12, n. 20: "Against this gratuitous gift, against this grace of God, speaks the impenitent heart. Impenitence itself, therefore, is blasphemy against the Spirit, which will be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come. Against the Holy Spirit, by whom those whose sins are all forgiven are baptized, and whom the Church received so that the sins of anyone whom she forgives may be forgiven him, it speaks a very evil and exceedingly impious word, whether in thought or even with his tongue. Although God’s patience leads him to repentance, he himself, according to his hardness and impenitent heart, stores up wrath for himself on the day of wrath and the revelation of God’s just judgment, who will render to each according to his works. This impenitence, therefore—for by this one name we can in some fashion designate both the blasphemy and the word against the Holy Spirit—has no forgiveness forever.” (Migne, P. L., XXXVIII, 455).—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 14, art. 1.

⁴ Cfr. Matth. XII, 31 sq.; 1 John V, 16; Heb. VI, 4-6; X, 26; 2 Pet. II, 20.—Chr. Pesch, S.J., Praelect. Dogmat., Vol. I, 3rd ed., p. 586.

⁵ Cfr. John VIII, 21, 24; Rom. II, 4-8. —St. Augustine, De Serm. Dom. in Monte, I, c. 22, nm. 74: "This difference of sins distinguishes Judas the betrayer from Peter the denier, not because pardon would not be granted to one who repented, but because the stain of his sin was so great that he could not submit to the humility of entreaty, even though he was compelled by an evil conscience to acknowledge and declare his sin." (Migne, P. L., XXXIV, 1266). —St. Bonaventure, Brevil., P. III, c. 11: "Because it directly attacks the grace of the Holy Spirit through which remission of sin is effected, it is therefore unpardonable—not because it can in no way be forgiven, but because, so far as it lies in itself, it is a direct attack upon the medicine and remedy through which remission of sin is to be effected." (Ed. 2a, Vicetia, 233).—St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 14, art. 3: "According to the diverse meanings of sin against the Holy Spirit, it is called unpardonable in diverse ways. For if sin against the Holy Spirit is final impenitence, it is called unpardonable because it is in no way forgiven. For a mortal sin in which a man perseveres until death, since it is not forgiven through penance in this life, will not be forgiven in the future either. According to the other two meanings it is called unpardonable, not because it is in no way forgiven, but because in itself it has the desert of not being forgiven, and this in two ways. In one way as regards punishment: one who sins from ignorance or weakness deserves a lesser punishment, but one who sins from certain malice has no excuse by which his punishment may be lessened. Similarly, one who blasphemed the Son of Man before His divinity had been revealed could have some excuse because of the weakness of the flesh which he saw in Him, and thus he deserved a lesser punishment. But he who blasphemed the divinity itself by attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to the devil had no excuse by which his punishment might be diminished. It can be understood in another way with regard to guilt. Just as a disease is called incurable according to the nature of the disease when it removes that by which the disease can be cured—for example, when the disease removes the strength of nature or induces disgust for food and medicine, although God can cure such a disease—so also sin against the Holy Spirit is called unpardonable according to its nature insofar as it excludes those things through which remission of sins is effected. Nevertheless, by this the way of forgiving and healing is not closed to the omnipotence and mercy of God, through which such persons are sometimes healed spiritually as if by a miracle."

The sins against the Holy Ghost according to the Catechism are: (i) Presumption of God's mercy; (2) Despair; (3) Resisting the known Christian truth; (4) Envy at another's spiritual good; (5) Obstinacy in sin; and (6) Final impenitence.

This division is popular rather than scientific, but it correctly describes the psychological stages of the malice that leads to final impenitence. The so-called sin against the Holy Ghost, therefore, is not a single sin but the sum-total of a bad life.⁶ At what stage actual impenitence sets in, God alone knows.⁷ The Church assumes that every man wishes to die in the state of grace. St. Augustine says that as long as there is life there is hope, that "the Almighty Physician knows no incurable disease," and while grace has a chance to work, no sinner need be given up.⁸

⁶ Cfr. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 2a 2ae, qu. 14, art. 4: “To sin against the Holy Spirit in one way is to sin from certain malice. But it happens in two ways that one sins from certain malice. In one way, from the inclination of a habit; this is not properly to sin against the Holy Spirit, and in this manner sinning from certain malice does not occur at the beginning. Acts of sin must precede, from which a habit inclining to sin is caused. In another way, someone can sin from certain malice by casting aside through contempt those things by which a man is withdrawn from sin; this properly is to sin against the Holy Spirit. And this also generally presupposes other sins. Yet it can happen that someone sins against the Holy Spirit through contempt in the first act of sin, both because of freedom of choice and because of many preceding dispositions, or even because of some vehement motive toward evil and a weak affection of the man toward good. Therefore in perfect men it can scarcely or never happen that they sin against the Holy Spirit immediately at the beginning. But if final impenitence according to Augustine’s understanding is meant by sin against the Holy Spirit, there is no question, because continuation in sins to the end of life is required for sin against the Holy Spirit.”

⁷ St. Augustine, Serm., 71 (al. 11 De Verbis Domini), c. 13, n. 21: "This impenitence or impenitent heart cannot be judged so long as each person lives in this flesh. For no one must be despaired of while God’s patience leads him to repentance and does not snatch the wicked man from this life—He who does not will the death of the wicked, but that he should return and live." as long as the patience of God leads him to repentance and does not snatch the wicked man from this life—He who does not will the death of the wicked, but that he should return and live." (Migne, P. L., XXXVIII, 456). — IDEM, De Catech. Rud., c. 26, n. 50: "Let him despair of the correction of no man whom the patience of God sees living for no other reason, as the Apostle says, than that he may be led to repentance." (P. L., XL, 345).

⁸ Cfr. St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps., II, 36, n. 11: "De nullo vivente desperandum est," (Migne, P. L., XXXVI, 370). —Ibid., 102, n. 5: "All your diseases will be healed; do not fear. They are great, you say, but the Physician is greater. No incurable disease confronts the omnipotent Physician." (Migne, P. L., XXXVII, 1319). —IDEM, Serm., 128 (al. 43 De Verbis Dom.), c. 12, n. 14: "De nullo iacente desperandutn est sub tali suscitatore." (P. L., XXXVIII, 720).—Cfr. Serm., 17 (al. 28 inter Horn. 50), n.

A man may be addicted to some evil passion or vice, though morality, faith, contrition, and penance are by no means extinct in his soul. Conversely, he may be in the state of impenitence without having entirely relinquished the practice of religion and virtue, for he may keep up a semblance of piety out of selfishness or hypocrisy.... On the other hand, there is a state of the soul which logically and psychologically, though only by gradual and almost unnoticeable stages, superinduces complete impenitence. As every sin committed by a Catholic receives added gravity from the fact that it is the act of one who possesses the true faith and has access to the means of grace, so the sin against the Holy Ghost begins with an abuse of divine truth and grace, with resistance to the inspirations that come from above, especially the call to conversion or to a more perfect state of life. This initial stage is followed by habitual neglect of the duties of one's vocation, and, finally, by sacrilegious reception of the Sacraments.⁹

³ (P. L., XXXVIII, 125).

⁹ F. X. Linsenmann, Lehrbuch dcr Moraltheologie, pp. 183 sq.

3. DEVIL WORSHIP. —Sometimes the sin against the Holy Ghost culminates in a deliberate and complete surrender of the soul to the evil one, resulting in actual devil worship.¹⁰ The leading characteristic of this terrible sin is hatred of God, which manifests itself in deadly antagonism to all that is good, joy in evil things, a burning desire to seduce others and to commit sin for its own sake.¹¹ Devil worship is the climax of human malice and embraces all the capital vices, the sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance, and especially those by which a man becomes accessory to the sins of others. Sometimes the soul sinks so low as to enter into a formal union with the powers of darkness (demonism, deification of evil). This relation is, as a rule, purely moral, but it may develop into a mystic marriage of the human mind with Satan, accompanied by a desire to employ diabolic help in unraveling the mysteries of life and eternity (astrology, fortune-telling, necromancy) or performing feats that exceed the ordinary powers of nature (black magic, sorcery).¹²

¹⁰ Cfr. Matth. XII, 43 sqq.; John VI, 70; VIII, 44; XIII, 2; 1 John III, 8, 10.

¹¹ Cfr. Gen. IV, 3-5, 8; Is. V, 20; 1 John III, 12-13.—Cfr. Tacitus, Germania, XIX: "Corrumpere et corrumpi saeculum vocatur."

¹² "Fleet ere si nequeo super os, Acheronta movebo." (Aeneis, VII, 312).

READINGS. —St. Augustine, De Serm. Domini in Monte, I, c. 22. —IDEM, Enchiridion, c. 83. —IDEM, Sermones, 71 (al. n De Verbis Domini), c. 13, 14, 21. —Richard of St. Victor, Tractatus de Spiritu Blasphemiae (Migne, P. L., CXCVI, 1885).—Peter Lombard, Sententiarum Libri Quatuor, II, dist. 43. —St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, 2a 2ae, qu. 14. —IDEM, De Malo, qu. 3, art. 14 sq. —St. Bonaventure, Breviloquium, P. III, c. 11. —M. Gerbert, De Peccato in Spiritum Sanctum, Blasii 1766. —J. I. Hoffmann, Die Sünde und Sundcn gegen den hl. Geist, Ratisbon 1847, pp. 16 sqq. —Alex, ab Oettingen, De Peccato in Spiritum Sanctum, Dorpat 1856, pp. 49 sqq. —H. Noldin, S.J., Summa Theol. Mor., Vol. I, pp. 393 sqq. —J. Knabenbauer, S.J., Comment. in Quatuor S. Evangelia, Paris 1892, Vol. I, pp. 487 sqq. —J. Forget in the Cath. Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, pp. 414 sq.

— Notions. In the dogmatic treatise concerning Penance, theologians are accustomed laboriously to inquire what sin in Sacred Scripture is stated to be irremissible, as being against the Holy Spirit ¹. That controversy is not ours.

But, relying on various places of St. Augustine, after Peter Lombard (2) and Alexander of Hales, theologians are accustomed to number six sins which are particularly opposed to the Holy Spirit, because they resist more the action of grace. Wherefore they are blotted out with greater difficulty. St. Thomas ³ says that they are remitted as if miraculously.

They are: Presumption; Despair; attack on known (religious) truth; envy concerning grace granted to a brother; obstinacy; impenitence.

Today those are guilty of this sin who enter upon a wicked pact which we can call one concerning final impenitence, when they mutually promise each other assistance for closing to themselves, at the end of life, the way of reconciliation with Christ and the Church.

The discussion will return concerning the two former kinds in the treatise on Hope. The others are understood of themselves.

¹ Cf. St. Matt. 12, 31 ff.; St. Mark 3, 28; St. Luke 12, 10. - (2) 2 Sent., d. 43, 6.

³ Summa, 2, 2, q. 14, art. 3.