Sermons to the People 71.16–71.30

Likewise, when we hear, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” we certainly do not understand one who believes in the way the demons also believe and tremble, nor the baptized in the number in which Simon the magician could be baptized but could not be saved. As, then, when he said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” he had in view not all who believe and are baptized but certain ones, namely those established in that faith which, by the Apostle’s distinction, works through love: so when he said, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness forever,” he meant not every guilt of one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, but a certain guilt, by which whoever is bound will never be released by any forgiveness.

And that saying of his, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him”: how are we to understand it? Can we include here even those of whom the Apostle says that they eat and drink judgment to themselves, though they eat that very flesh and drink that very blood? Did Judas too, the wicked seller and betrayer of his master, abide in Christ, or Christ in him, though, as the evangelist Luke declares more plainly, he ate and drank with the other disciples that first sacrament of his flesh and blood, made by his own hands? Finally, do so many who either eat that flesh and drink that blood with a feigned heart, or become apostates after they have eaten and drunk, abide in Christ, or Christ in them? But surely there is a certain way of eating that flesh and drinking that blood, in which whoever has eaten and drunk abides in Christ and Christ in him. So it is not in whatever way anyone eats the flesh of Christ and drinks the blood of Christ that he abides in Christ and Christ in him, but in a certain way, a way which he certainly saw when he said these things. So too in his saying, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness forever”: it is not whoever blasphemes in any way whatever who is guilty of this unforgivable offense, but whoever blasphemes in a certain way, which he who uttered this true and terrible sentence wished us to seek and understand.

But what that manner of blaspheming is—or rather that lack of all measure—what that blasphemy is, and what the word against the Holy Spirit is, the very order of the discourse now requires, as I judge, that we say, and that we no longer put off your expectation, held back so long, though necessarily. You know, dearly beloved, that in that invisible and incorruptible Trinity which our faith and the Catholic Church hold and preach, God the Father is the Father not of the Holy Spirit but of the Son; and God the Son is the Son not of the Holy Spirit but of the Father; and God the Holy Spirit is the Spirit not of the Father alone or of the Son alone, but of the Father and the Son. And this Trinity, though the property and substance of each of the persons is preserved, is nevertheless, because of the undivided and inseparable essence or nature of eternity, truth, and goodness, not three gods but one God. And so, as far as we can grasp it, as far as it is granted to see these things through a mirror and in an enigma, especially to such as we still are, there is suggested to us in the Father authority, in the Son birth, in the Holy Spirit the communion of the Father and the Son, in the three equality. What, then, is common to the Father and the Son, through this they willed us to have communion both among ourselves and with them, and by that gift which both have as one to gather us into one, that is, by the Holy Spirit, God and the gift of God. For in him we are reconciled to the Godhead and delight in it. For what would it profit us to know whatever good we knew, unless we also loved it? Just as we learn by truth, so we love by charity, so that we may both know more fully and, being blessed, enjoy what we know. And charity is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And because by sins we were estranged from the possession of true goods, charity covers a multitude of sins. So the Father is the truthful origin of the Son, the Truth; and the Son is the Truth born of the truthful Father; and the Holy Spirit is the goodness poured out from the good Father and the good Son: but in all there is no unequal divinity and no separable unity.

First, then, there comes to us from God’s goodness, from the beginning of faith, a gift toward receiving eternal life, which will be given at the last: the forgiveness of sins. For while sins remain, there remains in a way enmity against God and estrangement from him, which comes from our evil; for Scripture does not lie when it says, “Your sins separate between you and God.” So he does not bring his goods into us unless he takes away our evils. And the former grow in proportion as the latter diminish; nor will the former be perfected unless the latter are ended. Now that the Lord Jesus forgives sins by the Holy Spirit, just as he casts out demons by the Holy Spirit, can be understood from this: after he rose from the dead, having said to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he immediately added, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they will be forgiven him; if you retain anyone’s, they will be retained.” For that regeneration too, in which the forgiveness of all past sins takes place, takes place in the Holy Spirit, as the Lord says, “Unless one is reborn of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” But it is one thing to be born of the Spirit, another to be fed by the Spirit; just as it is one thing to be born of the flesh, which happens when the mother gives birth, another to be fed by the flesh, which happens when she nurses the infant, who turns to drink with pleasure from that from which he was born in order to live, so that he receives the nourishment of living from the source from which he received the beginning of birth. So the first benefit of God’s kindness in the Holy Spirit that we must believe is the forgiveness of sins. That is why the preaching of John the Baptist, who was sent as the Lord’s forerunner, also began thus. For so it is written: “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” Hence also the preaching of the Lord himself, as we read: “From then on Jesus began to preach and to say: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” And John says, among the other things he said to those who came to be baptized by him: “I baptize you in water for repentance; but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.” And the Lord says: “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, whom you will receive not many days from now, at Pentecost.” Now what John said, “and fire,” though it can be understood also of the tribulation that believers would suffer for the name of Christ, yet it is not beside the point that the same Holy Spirit seems to be signified also by the name of fire. That is why at his coming it is said: “There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, which also rested on each of them.” Hence the Lord himself says: “I came to cast fire into the world.” Hence the Apostle says: “Fervent in spirit,” since from this source charity burns. For it is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Opposed to this fervor is what the Lord says: “The charity of many will grow cold.” But perfect charity is the perfect gift of the Holy Spirit. Yet what pertains to the forgiveness of sins comes first: by this benefit we are rescued from the power of darkness, and the prince of this world, who works in the sons of unbelief by no other power than the fellowship and bond of sin, is cast out by our faith. For by the Holy Spirit, by whom the people of God is gathered into one, the unclean spirit, which is divided against itself, is cast out.

Against this free gift, against this grace of God, the impenitent heart speaks. This impenitence, then, is the blasphemy of the Spirit, which will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come. For against the Holy Spirit, in whom those are baptized whose sins are all forgiven, and whom the Church received so that whoever’s sins she forgives, they are forgiven him, a very evil and exceedingly ungodly word is spoken, whether in thought or also with the tongue, by the one whom the patience of God leads to repentance, but who, according to the hardness of his heart and his impenitent heart, stores up wrath for himself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works. This impenitence, then—for by some such single name we can somehow call both the blasphemy and the word against the Holy Spirit that has no forgiveness forever—this impenitence, I say, against which both the herald and the judge cried out, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near”; against which the Lord opened the mouth of gospel preaching, and against which he foretold that the Gospel itself was to be preached in the whole world, when, after he rose from the dead, he said to the disciples, “It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and for repentance and forgiveness of sins to be preached in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem”: this impenitence has no forgiveness at all, neither in this age nor in the age to come; for repentance obtains forgiveness in this age, which avails in the age to come.

But this impenitence, or impenitent heart, cannot be judged as long as anyone lives in this flesh. For no one is to be despaired of as long as the patience of God leads to repentance and he does not snatch the ungodly from this life, he who does not will the death of the ungodly so much as that he turn and live. He is a pagan today: how do you know whether he will be a Christian tomorrow? He is an unbelieving Jew today: what if tomorrow he believes in Christ? He is a heretic today: what if tomorrow he follows Catholic truth? He is a schismatic today: what if tomorrow he embraces Catholic peace? What if these whom you mark out in whatever kind of error, and condemn as utterly hopeless, repent before they end this life and find true life in the future? Therefore, brothers, let what the Apostle says admonish you on this point too: “Do not judge anything before the time.” For this blasphemy of the Spirit, for which there is never any forgiveness (which we have understood to be not every blasphemy but a certain one, and have said, or found, or even, as far as we judge, shown to be the persevering hardness of an impenitent heart), cannot, as we said, be detected in anyone while he is still in this life.

Let it not seem absurd on this account that, although a man who persists in hard impenitence to the end of this life speaks long and much against this grace of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel nevertheless called so long a contradiction of the impenitent heart a “word,” as if it were something short, saying: “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the age to come.” For though this blasphemy is drawn out, woven together and prolonged with very many words, yet Scripture is accustomed to call even many words a “word.” For no prophet spoke only a single word, and yet we read: “The word that came to this or that prophet.” And the Apostle says: “Let the presbyters be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and teaching.” He does not say “in words,” but “in the word.” And Saint James says: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” He too does not say “of the words,” but “of the word,” though so many words of the holy Scriptures are read, spoken, and heard publicly and solemnly in the church. Just as, then, however long any one of us has labored in preaching the Gospel, he is called a preacher not of words but of the word; and however long any one of you has listened diligently and attentively to our preaching, he is called most eager to hear not words but the word: so, in the manner in which the Scriptures speak and which the custom of the Church knows, whoever, throughout the whole life in which he bears this flesh, however long it may stretch, has spoken whatever words, with the mouth or in thought alone, with an impenitent heart, against the forgiveness of sins that takes place in the Church, speaks a word against the Holy Spirit.

So not only the word spoken against the Son of Man, but absolutely every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, because where this sin of the impenitent heart against the Holy Spirit, by whom sins are loosed in the Church, is not present, all others are forgiven. But how will this sin be forgiven, which even hinders the forgiveness of the others? All sins, then, are forgiven those in whom this sin, which will never be forgiven, is not present; but in those in whom it is present, since this sin is never forgiven, neither are the others forgiven, because the forgiveness of all is hindered by the bond of this one. So it is not because the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son in the Trinity—which no one, not even a heretic, has ever said—that whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. It is because whoever has resisted the truth and blasphemed the truth, which is Christ, even after his being so proclaimed among men that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, which is the Son of Man, the same Christ—if he has not spoken that word of the impenitent heart against the Holy Spirit, of whom it is said, “Unless one is reborn of water and the Spirit,” and of whom it is likewise said, “Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven him”—that is, if he repents, will receive through this gift the forgiveness of all sins, including this one, that he spoke a word against the Son of Man; because to the sin of ignorance or stubbornness or any blasphemy whatever he has not added the sin of impenitence against the gift of God and the grace of regeneration or reconciliation that takes place in the Church in the Holy Spirit.

Nor, then, should one think what some suppose: that the word spoken against the Son of Man is forgiven, while what is spoken against the Holy Spirit is not, because Christ became the Son of Man by taking on flesh, and the Holy Spirit is certainly greater than that flesh, since in his own substance he is equal to the Father and to the only-begotten Son according to his divinity, according to which the only-begotten Son himself is equal to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. For if it had been said for this reason, surely all other blasphemy would have been passed over in silence, so that this alone would seem forgivable, which is spoken against the Son of Man, as when he is thought to be a mere man. But since it is said first, “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men,” which is also put thus in another evangelist, “All sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and the blasphemies with which they blaspheme,” without doubt the blasphemy spoken against the Father is also included in this generality; and yet only the blasphemy spoken against the Holy Spirit is defined as unforgivable. Did the Father also take the form of a servant, in which the Holy Spirit would be greater than he? Certainly not. But after the universal mention of all sins and all blasphemy, he wished to single out more prominently the blasphemy spoken against the Son of Man, because, even if men were bound by that sin which he mentioned where he says, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin”—which he also showed in the Gospel according to John to be a very grave sin, where he says of the Holy Spirit himself, when promising to send him, “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they did not believe in me”—yet if that hardness of the impenitent heart has not spoken a word against the Holy Spirit, even this which was spoken against the Son of Man will be forgiven. Here perhaps someone may ask whether only the Holy Spirit forgives sins, or the Father and the Son too. We answer: the Father and the Son too. For the Son himself says of the Father: “If you forgive men their sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins.” To him we also say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven,” and among other things we ask this too, saying, “Forgive us our debts.” And of himself he says: “That you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” If, then, you say, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forgive sins, why is that impenitence which will never be forgiven said to pertain only to blasphemy of the Spirit, as though one bound by this sin of impenitence seems to resist the gift of the Holy Spirit, because the forgiveness of sins takes place by that gift? Here I too ask whether Christ cast out the demons, or the Father and the Holy Spirit as well. For if only Christ, what does he himself mean by saying, “But the Father abiding in me, he does the works”? For it is said, “He does the works,” as though the Son did not do them, but the Father abiding in the Son. Why, then, does he say in another place, “My Father is working until now, and I am working,” and a little later, “For whatever he does, these things the Son also does likewise”? And what he says in another place, “If I had not done among them the works that no one else did,” he says as though he did them alone. But if these things are said in such a way that the works of the Father and the Son are nonetheless inseparable, what are we to believe about the Holy Spirit but that he too works equally? For in the very passage from which this question we are discussing arose, when the Son was casting out demons, he nevertheless says, “If I cast out demons by the Holy Spirit, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Here perhaps someone may say that the Holy Spirit is given by the Father and the Son rather than doing anything by his own will; and that the saying “By the Holy Spirit I cast out demons” refers to this, that not the Spirit himself but Christ did it by the Spirit, so that “In the Holy Spirit I cast out” is understood as if it were said, “With the Holy Spirit I cast out.” For the Scriptures are accustomed to speak thus: “They killed in the sword,” that is, with the sword; “They burned in fire,” that is, with fire; and “Jesus took knives of stone, in which he circumcised the sons of Israel,” that is, with which he circumcised the sons of Israel. But those who on this account take away from the Holy Spirit his own power, let them notice what we read was said by the Lord: “The Spirit breathes where he wills.” And as for what the Apostle says, “But all these things one and the same Spirit works,” it is to be feared that someone might suppose that the Father and the Son do not work them, since among those works he mentioned gifts of healings and workings of powers, which surely include the casting out of demons. But when he adds, “Dividing to each his own as he wills,” does he not show the power of the Holy Spirit too, but as plainly indivisible from the Father and the Son? If, then, these things are said in such a way that the working of the Trinity is nonetheless understood to be inseparable—so that when the working of the Father is spoken of, he is not understood to work without the Son and the Holy Spirit; and when the working of the Son, not without the Father and the Holy Spirit; and when the working of the Holy Spirit, not without the Father and the Son—it is well enough known to those who believe rightly, or who even understand as they can, first, that “He does the works” was said of the Father because from him is also the origin of the works, from whom is the existence of the cooperating persons, since the Son is born of him, and the Holy Spirit proceeds principally from him of whom the Son is born, and with whom the same Spirit is common to the Son; next, that what the Lord said, “If I had not done among them the works that no one else did,” was not said with reference to the Father or the Spirit, as though they did not cooperate with him in those works, but with reference to men, by whom many miracles are read to have been done, yet by none those which the Son did; and finally, that what the Apostle says of the Holy Spirit, “But all these things one and the same Spirit works,” was said not because the Father and the Son do not cooperate with him, but because in these works there are not many spirits but one Spirit, and in his diverse operations he is not diverse from himself.

Yet it is not idly but reasonably and truly said that the Father, not the Son and the Holy Spirit, said, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” But this miracle of a word sounding from heaven, though we know it pertains only to the person of the Father, we do not deny that the Son and the Holy Spirit cooperated in it. For it is not the case that, because the Son, bearing flesh, was then living among men on earth, he was therefore not also in the bosom of the Father as the only-begotten Word when that voice came from the cloud; nor can it be wisely and spiritually believed that God the Father separated the working of his sounding and passing words from the cooperation of his Wisdom and his Spirit. In the same way, although we say most rightly that not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son walked on the sea, since that flesh and the feet pressing on the waves were his alone, yet who would deny that the Father and the Holy Spirit cooperated in that work of so great a miracle? So too we say most truly that the Son alone took flesh, not the Father or the Holy Spirit; and yet whoever denies that the Father or the Holy Spirit cooperated in this incarnation, which pertains to the Son alone, does not think rightly. Likewise we say that neither the Father nor the Son, but the Holy Spirit alone, appeared both in the form of a dove and in tongues as of fire, and granted those on whom he came to proclaim the mighty works of God in many and various tongues; yet from this miracle, which pertains to the Holy Spirit alone, we cannot separate the cooperation of the Father and the only-begotten Word. So the Trinity works the works of each of those in the Trinity, the two cooperating with each one who works, with harmony of action among the three and no lack in any one of power to accomplish. This being so, that is why the Lord Jesus casts out demons by the Holy Spirit. It is not that he could not accomplish this alone and took that help as if he were insufficient for the work; but it was fitting that the spirit divided against itself should be expelled by that Spirit whom the Father and the Son, undivided in themselves, have in common.

So too sins, since they are not forgiven outside the Church, had to be forgiven by that Spirit by whom the Church is gathered into one. Finally, if anyone outside the Church repents of his sins, yet has an impenitent heart regarding this great sin by which he is estranged from the Church of God, what does that repentance profit him, since by this alone he speaks a word against the Holy Spirit: that he is a stranger to the Church, which received this gift, that in her the forgiveness of sins takes place in the Holy Spirit? Though the Trinity effects this forgiveness, yet it is understood to pertain properly to the Holy Spirit. For he is the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father, so that we can say to him, “Forgive us our debts.” And by this we know, as the Apostle John says, that Christ abides in us, by his Spirit whom he has given us. The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are sons of God. For to him belongs the fellowship by which we are made one body of the only Son of God. Hence it is written: “If, then, there is any exhortation in Christ, any consolation of charity, any fellowship of the Spirit.” Because of this fellowship those on whom he first came spoke in the tongues of all nations. For as the fellowship of the human race is bound more closely together by languages, so it was fitting that by the languages of all nations this fellowship of the sons of God and members of Christ, which was to be in all nations, should be signified: so that, as then he was seen to have received the Holy Spirit who spoke in the tongues of all nations, so now he may recognize that he has received the Holy Spirit who is held by the bond of peace of the Church, which is spread through all nations. Hence the Apostle says: “Eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

That he is the Spirit of the Father, the Son himself says: “He proceeds from the Father”; and in another place, “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” That he is also the Spirit of the Son, the Apostle says: “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father,” that is, making us cry. For it is we who cry, but in him, that is, as he pours out charity in our hearts, without which whoever cries cries in vain. Hence he also says: “But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” To whom in the Trinity, then, would the communion of this fellowship properly belong, if not to that Spirit who is common to the Father and the Son?

That those who are separated from the Church do not have this Spirit, the apostle Jude declared most plainly, saying: “Those who separate themselves, natural men, not having the Spirit.” Hence the apostle Paul, rebuking within the Church itself those who were attempting certain schisms through the names of men, though men established in her unity, says among other things: “But the natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot know it, because it is spiritually discerned.” He shows what he meant by “does not perceive”: that is, he does not grasp the word of knowledge. These, though established in the Church, he calls little ones, not yet spiritual but still carnal, to be fed with milk, not solid food. “As to little ones in Christ,” he says, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able; and even now you are not yet able.” Where “not yet” or “not still” is said, there is surely no despair, if one is reaching for the day when what is not yet will be. “For you are still,” he says, “carnal.” And showing why they are carnal: “For since there is rivalry and strife among you,” he says, “are you not carnal and walking according to man?” And making this plainer: “For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are you not men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers through whom you believed.” These, then, that is, Paul and Apollos, were in agreement in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace; and yet, because these people had begun to divide them from each other and to be puffed up for one against the other, they are called men, carnal, and natural, unable to perceive the things of the Spirit of God. And yet, because they are not separated from the Church, they are called little ones in Christ; he certainly wished those whom he rebuked for being men to be angels or gods, since in these quarrels they savored not the things of God but the things of men. But of those who are separated from the Church it is not said, “Not perceiving the things of the Spirit,” lest it be referred to the perception of knowledge; it is said, “Not having the Spirit.” And it does not follow that one who has it also perceives by knowing what he has.