Notes on Dominum et Vivifacantem (part 3)

Why is the sin against the Holy Spirit unforgivable?

• This blasphemy is not necessarily offending the H.S in words but rather," the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the H.S, working through the power of the cross."
• "The blasphemy against the H.S. consists... in the radical refusal to accept forgiveness, of which he is the intimate giver and which presupposes the genuine conversion which he brings about in the conscience."
• This blasphemy is not forgiven because "this non-forgiveness is linked ... to non repentance, ... to the radical refusal to be converted.... It is the the sin committed by the person who claims the right to persist in evil... and who rejects Redemption."
• "In our time this attitude of mind and heart is perhaps reflected in the loss of the sense of sin" which at the same time is " a loss of the sense of God." 
• The H.S, who leads the human conscience to know the truth about sin, also leads it to know the truth about the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
• This last point is related to the idea of justification. This portion of the Catechism shed some light on it Justification

The greatest accomplishment of the H.S is the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. It is he who makes the hypostatic union (the union of the divine and human nature in Jesus Christ) possible. At the moment of Jesus' conception the communication of God with man, through the H.S. reaches its climax.

This encyclical was written when the Church was preparing to celebrate the Jubilee of the year 2000. The pope says in relation to this preparation 

The Church cannot prepare for the Jubilee in any other way than in the Holy Spirit. What was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit "in the fullness of time" can only through the Spirit's power now emerge from the memory of the Church.

All is accomplished through and by the power of the Spirit. He makes it possible for us:

• to be adopted sons/ daughters
• to have a new life as part of the family of God
• to partake of the divine nature, our life becomes "permeated" with a divine, supernatural dimension.
• to have access to the Father in the H.S.

Unfortunately this possibility of sharing in the divine life is met with opposition "in our human reality". 

To a certain degree this opposition comes from the contrasting natures of God and the world. Whether God is invisible, absolute spirit, perfect; man is, by nature, visible, material, and imperfect. This difference in nature doesn't necessarily means conflict, but sin raised them to an act of rebellion and conflict.

This tension between "openness to the action of the Holy Spirit and resistance and opposition to him, to his saving gift" is part of the psychological and ethical reality of every human being. We can also see this same tension manifest itself at a wider, external level in a society. We see this in the prevalent materialism which "radically excludes the presence and action of God, who is spirit in the world and above all in man... It does not accept God's existence, being a system that is essentially and systematically atheist."

Materialism:

• is both a a theoretical system of thought and, in practical terms, a method of interpreting and evaluating facts, and of evaluating behavior.
• is the core of Marxism.
• sees reality as matter because matter is the only form of being.
• sees religion as an idealistic illusion (because it deals with more than matter)
• can be seen as a "systematic and logical development' of the opposition between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit (as stated by St Paul)
• accepts death as the definitive end of human existence ( we see "signs of death": euthanasia, wars, abortion, etc)

But in the midst of these signs of death we Christians are certain that

 the Spirit blows where he wills and that we possess "the first fruits of the Spirit," and that therefore even though we may be subjected to the sufferings of time that passes away, "we groan inwardly as we wait for...the redemption of our bodies,"²⁴⁴ or of all our human essence, which is bodily and spiritual. Yes, we groan, but in an expectation filled with unflagging hope, because it is precisely this human being that God has drawn near to, God who is Spirit. God the Father, "sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh."²⁴⁵ At the culmination of the Paschal Mystery, the Son of God, made man and crucified for the sins of the world, appeared in the midst of his Apostles after the Resurrection, breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." This "breath" continues forever, for "the Spirit helps us in our weakness."²⁴⁶