Daily Reflections ...

God’s infinite mercy and forgiveness is all powerful and constantly on offer to every single person.

In today’s gospel, we learn that there is an eternal sin that human beings are capable of.

Pope John Paul II in his encyclical on the Holy Spirit, explains that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit “does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross.” (Dominum et Vivificantem, 46)

This means that in exercising the total gift of free will, each person, created and loved unconditionally by God, always has the option to refuse and reject the gift of salvation.

I can only imagine how totally devastating this wilful decision to reject the salvation offered by God is to the Holy Trinity that is true love itself.

God loves every human person so completely and wants us to be with him throughout eternity. To consciously choose to close yourself off to the forgiveness offered by God, through Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is to choose to be forever apart from the one who loves you most.

My prayer today is that the Holy Spirit will act powerfully in the lives of those contemplating the idea to willfully refuse the free gift of salvation. I pray that the truth of God’s incredible love for them, would be revealed, and that their hearts would change as they become open to inviting the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. Please join me in this prayer.

by Melissa Ledwich