Mtr Mary Trainor

Dear friend,

Have you ever had an experience you knew was from God?

An unexpected healing? A phone call out of the blue, the start of a mending? Something you dreaded or feared that never happened? Or even if it did, you were oddly calm with the peace that passes understanding?

You never mention these things because others won’t understand. But you know. Maybe you can’t prove it. But you know.

We who believe generally accept that God does miraculous deeds. There is much we don’t understand, can’t explain, find improbable—but nevertheless accept prime facia as the work of God. We do this with the help of the Holy Spirit, that wondrous member of the Trinity who inspires, reveals, directs, nudges, whispers in our ear.

But there are people in our world who have no awareness of God, at least not yet. Some are blithely ignorant, some benignly disbelieving, while others are hostile and accusing.

Jesus encounters some of the latter in our Daily Office reading from Mark (3:19b-35.) Some scribes claim his casting out of demons can only be the work of Satan.

Because we are accustomed to “scribes” and “Pharisees” as universal antagonists in the Gospels, we assume only “bad faith” on their part. And that is probably warranted. Yet I wonder…do we who believe fall into a similar trap at times? Do we limit what we think God can do? Do we make God small?

Today’s Gospel comes with a warning, one that is picked up and repeated in Matthew and Luke: Rejecting the work of God through the Holy Spirit has consequences.

Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin, the Gospels say. I was terrified when I first heard this in childhood. If God is love, how can there be a thing that is unforgivable? Can this happen to me?

In our General Confession said most Sundays we lament our thoughts, words, and deeds, things done and left undone, that are sins against God. We ask God’s  forgiveness, and receive same through the agency of a bishop or a priest. We repent. We are forgiven.

So, can I just stray into the unforgivable area? Can I get there by accIdent? Not likely.

I found it helpful to turn to the back of The Book of Common Prayer, the historical section, where at the bottom of page 870 I found Article XVI of the 39 Articles of Faith:

“Therefore those who say that they are incapable of sinning any more in this life (after baptism) are to be condemned, as are those who deny the opportunity of forgiveness to those who truly repent.”

Intentional resistance on our part to the work of the Holy Spirit puts us outside of God’s forgiveness. We are outside because we refuse to be in the midst of God’s forgiveness. We resist. But God awaits.

Are there still last-minute opportunities? Just ask the thief on the cross. By the way, you will find him in Paradise.

Mtr. Mary