So often when I am reflecting on the readings in the Lectionary, I find a phrase I never focused on before or that jumps out at me. It happened to me today as I considered the readings for this Sunday, the 10th Sunday year B in Ordinary time. The phrase was in the second reading from St Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 4 verse 13. St Paul says, “we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we too believe and therefore speak…”.
There are a myriad of ways to consider this phrase. If we believe, are we compelled to
speak? What if we believe and don’t
speak? Or, what if we speak without
believing? There seems to be an
assumption in here that whatever we speak will be the truth. What if we don’t speak the truth? And, finally, what if we don’t share that
same spirit of faith?
There are many risks for people who actually speak what they
believe. For the prophets, John the
Baptist, Jesus, the Apostles and many faithful Christians, speaking up for what
they believed lead to their martyrdom. Most
of us fall into the category of believing and not speaking. Given what usually
happens to people who believe and speak, this stance is understandable.
While this sounds very bleak, there is an element of good
news. Jesus told his followers, the scribes,
his family and he tells us that “all sins and all blasphemies that people utter
will be forgiven them.” There is,
however, one unforgivable sin and that is blaspheme against the Holy Spirit: “whoever blasphemes against the Holy
Spirit will never have forgiveness but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph
1864, defines blaspheme against the Holy Spirit as the deliberate refusal “to
accept [God’s] mercy by repenting,” rejecting “forgiveness of sins” and rejecting
“the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit.”
