Devotional Thoughts for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

by Rev. Fr. Geevarghese Erakkath

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel Reading: St. Mark 3: 20-30

The real knowledge about God is the essential factor for the spiritual growth of earthly man. It will make him realize the limitations in life and conscious of his sins. This leads him to depend on the grace of God. Through our daily prayers and reading the Holy Bible, attending the liturgy and constant participation in the Holy Communion we could familiarize with and understand that the healing touch and casting out of demons by Jesus are from heavenly power.

Here in the gospel according to St. Mark, Jesus healed a man who had a withered hand, in the Synagogue. He touched and cured those who came from all over Galilee and beyond the territory. He appointed twelve disciples to share and follow after him the ministry of preaching, healing and casting out demons. He did all these things with Godly authority and power where as the scribes from Jerusalem together with the Herodians said “ He has Beelzebub and by the ruler of the demons he cast out the demons”. Jesus disproved the argument with a parable. The parable of a house divided. An important principle is laid down here. An organization or an institution standing against its own interest will be lead to destruction. ‘ United we stand divided we fall’ is a famous saying. The most effective way to destroy a mighty empire is to saw the seeds of an internal conflict.

Jesus said that the sin of acquisition against the Son of God and all the unworthiness of Man would be forgiven. He made a warning that the denial of the beauty of moral values, ignoring the goodness of others (Jesus’ healing) accepting the limitations of our own, the negligence of hearing the voice of God are all blasphemies against the Holy Spirit. ‘ He who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is subject to eternal condemnation’. It was the worst habit of the Jewish hypocrites as Jesus called them to envy at the goodness of others. They try to misapprehend the holy deeds of the savior. It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is a sin that does not deserve forgiveness.

Here St. Mark symbolically depicted the liberation proclamation by Jesus from the demonic bondage to total humanity. The regained soul of every man can enjoy the characteristic spirit of the original creation through the salvation work of our savior. At this time, let me pray to God Almighty to enter the house of my mind with the help of the spiritual strength I attained so far, to bind the satanic thoughts in it and cast out every evil. I may enjoy the peace of mind where God dwells.