Jesus binds the "strong man" and rescues US.

While studying Mark 3:20-30, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, we discussed the ideas of

1. final impenitence -- shutting the door in God's face -- and
2. the attribution of the Holy Spirit's action to the enemy.

Can these two ideas be self-consistent? Yes. It is good to remember what Pope John Paul II wrote in 1986, concerning the Lord and Giver of Life,

How should this blasphemy be understood? St. Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is "unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place."

According to such an exegesis, "blasphemy" 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.

For the first action of the Holy Spirit in an individual is not expelling a demon per se, but it is the grace of repentance, and attributing it to the enemy is one mode of rejecting that grace.

Finally, we make take peace from the lead of Pope John Paul II, who wrote that those who convert are led by the Holy Spirit out of the range of this blasphemy. When we celebrate the sacrament of confession, we can be peaceful. Our Messiah, Jesus, has rescued US.

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