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The Unforgivable Sin

Q.: Jesus seems to say there is a sin which can never be forgiven. What is he talking about.

A: Let me start with the quote to which you are probably referring:

    Jesus said, “‘I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.’ He said this because they were saying, ‘He has an evil spirit.’” (Mark 3:28) 

It horrifies our fallen human minds to think that, after God has offered us such immense divine mercy in his crucified Son, that there could be a sin which God would not forgive. Yet here Jesus himself, in his own words, discusses a sin which “will never be forgiven.” This has brought many people on various occasions to ask me about this sin.

Some had even come, after falling into a great or particularly shameful sin, to ask whether these words of Jesus apply to them. I therefore wish to share what some of the Fathers of the Church have to say about this, using St. Thomas as our guide. I summarize some of the teachings in the Summa Theologiae, as I cite below; for those who wish to know more, you can find the footnotes regarding the other saints he quotes there.

And if you wish to see more original sources, and you don’t dispose of an extensive library, most diocesan seminaries, to my knowledge, have libraries which the faithful at large can visit and consult, and they are usually more amply stocked with books useful for Catholic research than are the local public libraries.

So here is the summary:

Sins against the Holy Spirit (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh., IIaIIae, 14, 1 and 2)

1. Blaspheming the divinity of Christ, since the spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit (not to be confused with his human soul, which he also had), which is taken for God who is spirit. This is the opinion of Ss. Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, and Chrysostom.

2. Final impenitence, that is, persevering in mortal sin until death. This is the opinion of St. Augustine.

3. The sin of malice, which goes against the good; this is so, because as the Father appropriates power and the Son wisdom, so the Holy Spirit the good. This includes a contempt for those things which will lead man to salvation. There are six species of this sin.

   1. Despair.

   2. Presumption.

   3. Impenitence.

   4. Obstinacy.

   5. Rejection of a known truth.

   6. Envy of the supernatural grace of another.

            The following chart graphically displays these six species of malice according to the divisions and categories St. Thomas offers in this passage (article 2):