Known Truth Accepted or Rejected

Catholic Catechisms enumerate the Sins Against the Holy Ghost, and they say that they cannot be forgiven in this world or in the next.

Before zeroing in on the topic of resisting the known truth We shall list all the sins against the Holy Ghost. They are six in all: 1) Presumption; 2) Despair; 3) Resisting the known truth; 4) Envy of another’s spiritual good; 5) Obstinacy in sin; 6) Final impenitence.

In his general treatment of the forgiveness of sins Ludwig Ott in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma (1958 edition) page 423 points out that in all of the sins against the Holy Ghost there is the element of “obduracy, which because of a lack of due dispositions, cannot be forgiven.” This is a matter of mere common sense. While there is obduracy in any sin there can be no contrition, which is a condition for forgiveness.

Taking a stand can be for the good or for the bad. When the taking a stand in regard to what is good, the firmness is called virtue or perseverance. All holy souls are firm in doing good and avoiding evil. The martyrs are clear examples of holy persons who stood firm for the good, even to bearing the most terrible sufferings of a bloody martyrdom. All the angels and saints are honored for their firmness (united with the grace of God) in doing good and avoiding evil.
On the contrary, obduracy is a satanic firmness in holding onto evil whatever it may be. As long as that holding to evil continues, there is no detachment from evil, and no forgiveness for sin.

An example (a parable if you wish to call it that) is where the capturing of monkeys is effected by their own obduracy. The Filipinos cut a hole in coconuts just large enough so that the monkeys can get their hands into it. Then they stake the coconuts to the ground and put rice into it. A monkey seeing and smelling the rice puts his hand into the hole of the coconut and fills his hand with rice. While his hand is clinched full of rice he cannot extract it from the coconut. He hangs onto the rice even while the people come up to him and kill him for food. If he had dropped the rice and shrunk his hand he could have extracted it from the coconut, run away and saved his life. Keep this example in mind as We examine sins against the Holy Ghost.

Presumption, which is mortally sinful, means that the person sees no reason for giving up the evil, and he presumes that he can repent onto forgiveness before death. He is obdurate in his presumption. Hence, there is no forgiveness. He never even desires forgiveness. This sin is an object requiring prayers for reparation. It is found in the “Act of Reparation” thus: “Mindful, alas, that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depth of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation not only for our own personal offences, but also for the sins of those who straying from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or renouncing the vows of their Baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.”

The sin of despair means that one judges that he cannot obtain forgiveness even if he does his best. Judas Iscariot is the classical example of despair. St. Peter also sinned, but he repented without any presumption or despair.

Envy of another’s spiritual good cuts right into the rights of God. One sees and is envious that another has more graces and other spiritual gifts which come from the Holy Ghost. In effect such envy is the same as saying to God, “You cannot give Your gifts as You please. I determine that.” King Saul was happy being the king, but when David was made king by God, Saul envied him to the point that he did all he could to kill his successor, King David. In the book of Proverbs 14, 30 we see how God hates envy. He says: “Soundness of heart is the life of the flesh: but envy is the rottenness of the bones.” Obstinacy in sin means that those in any shape or form of sin deliberately remain in it. Take for example all the millions of people who live in invalid marriages. Extend that case to all that is modern and sinful in society today. We remember a mother telling Us that her grown sons occasionally brought home girl friends that were either un-wed mothers or divorced women. She asked her sons just why they dealt with such girls as possible wives. The answer to their mother was this: “Ma, that is all that is out there.” It would seem that when a religious organization approves an openly known homosexual priest to become a bishop it would be analogous to the boys saying to their mother: “Ma, that is all that there is out there.”

Final impenitence means that one dies determined that he will never give up his sin. He goes into the next world, to God’s just judgment seat, determined that he will hold fast to his sins forever. Provided that the sin is a mortal sin that he is attached to, that is the greatest sin that cannot be forgiven in this world or in the next world. It is because the person never changes his mind, and he holds to his determination forever. Thus he calls down God’s punishment on himself without ever changing his mind.

To those who might think that the damned would ever repent We shall give you the appropriate words in the Church’s official exorcism rite. In addressing the devil the exorcism text says to Satan: “you still think that you are equal with God.” Just think of the many years that the devil already is in hell and in most terrible suffering. He in his obstinacy just cannot catch on that God is infinite, obviously greater than himself, a mere creature of God. As a matter of fact the same thing can be said of all the damned whether they are damned angels or damned human beings. No one need feel the least bit sorry for the damned, for they all remain in hell because of their obstinacy on earth (human beings) and their obstinacy without change in hell.

Resisting the Known Truth

The word “truth” has many meanings. Father Donald Attwater in A Catholic Dictionary (1949 edition) gives us the different meanings of truth:

Logical truth means that one understands what the object is. An apple is an apple, and not a pear. Logical truth is violated if one calls an apple a pear. Logical judgment is helpful when correct, and harmful when wrong. For example, mushrooms are quite similar. One knows that certain mushrooms are good to eat. Failing in truth he may get a mushroom that is poisonous, and he may get sick and even die. God gave us an intellect to use in the search for things that we need for health and life. Animals choose food that is good for them by a blind instinct they have from the creator.

Ontological truth refers to the nature of the object. Thus we use terms as true gold, and fool’s gold. The true gold is that product that was created by God as what is known by men as gold. For the sake of beauty man sometimes creates synthetic gold. Gold as it is in nature was created by God, and the object is true if it is true gold and not false gold. Hence, when men change genes in things they are no longer what the creator made. Hence, gene altered grapes and gene altered wheat are not true objects as God created them, and they may not be used in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

This matter of truth in created things is most important. God created foodstuffs to feed man properly. If one eats gene altered foods one doctor said it is as if one puts molasses into the gas tank of a car. A little may not spell trouble, but a notable amount spells trouble.

Moral truth means that one says what he judges (resting in his conscience) to be the truth. What he thinks may be true or false. However, if he says an iron rod is cold when he knows it is hot he is outside of moral truth. If he or others pick up that hot iron rod they get burned. Here we must keep in mind that moral truth may involve error. If one judges that an iron rod is cold when it is hot he is in error. If he says it is cold he tells the moral truth, for he tells what he judges to be true.

It follows that we must strive to know ontological truth, and then speak moral truth. Much suffering and hell itself follows from mistaken premises and lies. False religions, either by their lies or mistakes, lead men to perdition.

In this matter of learning the practical applications in regard to “resisting the known truth” We turn to a very credible author. We feel that people may want to challenge Us in regard this teaching, so We are giving them the opportunity to purchase this book, and We give all the particulars. Hence, any time in the future when you want this book you can learn from this Caritas letter where to find it and purchase it. The source is:

TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., P.O. Box 424, Rockford, IL 61105, 1 (800) 437-5876. The book is called, The Catechism Explained – An Exhaustive Explanation of the Catholic Religion. (ISBM 4976) TAN Catalogue number #1243, $43.00 (if ordered alone) $6.00 p/h. The date of the imprimatur is May 7, 1927. The catalog reads:

To Us the availability of this incredibly well documented and outstanding book in these times is truly a special act of God. All those who can manage the purchase price should purchase this book, and if parents are wondering what to give, as a present, to their growing children this could be the ideal present. You fulfill to a large extent your obligation to teach you children the truths of the Catholic faith. Outside the Church there is no salvation.

We continue with the explanation of the sin against the Holy Ghost called “resisting the known truth.” Spirago/Clark on page 459 says: “He commits a sin against the Holy Ghost who persistently and willfully resists the action of the Holy Ghost.” Once more, what is really implied in this context by “resisting.” It means that one refuses to accept (agree to) some good object, whether it is natural or supernatural. If there is no object before the individual there can be no such thing as “resisting.”

Just what comes under “known truth?” There are many unknown truths both in the natural order and in the supernatural order.

We can start with the natural order. There are many illnesses for which there are no known cures at this point in time. The day may come when the cures will be found. Take for example; there are people who refuse to accept that a blood transfusion is a lawful and good procedure when one loses his blood for any reason. There are cults which refuse blood transfusions and their adherents die on the spot even when the cure is available. In these cases resisting the known truth causes needless deaths.

It should be noted that there are times when the whole world is blind to the known truth. We shall unite to classical cases. The first example is taken from the book Finding God’s Will For You by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Sophia Institute Press. On pages 100-101 we find the words of St. Francis de Sales, (quote) “The physician never orders a man sick with fever not to be thirsty, as that would be a very foolish thing. He rightly tells him that he must refrain from drinking even though he is thirsty.” We know now that the world at the time of St. Francis de Sales was wrong. The truth is, one must drink water when he has a fever. To make this even more clear recall the martyrdom of Maria Goretti. Her male assailant brutally stabbed her, and she lost much blood. She became very thirsty and asked for water. The medical staff (following protocol) refused to give her water, and she died. It is possible that her life could have been saved if she had been given water which we know now would have been the right thing to do.

In our enlightened times blindness regarding truth continues, and much of it is deliberately forced on the public by greedy doctors. Cancer is a big and lucrative business. The present general protocol for treatment of cancer is surgery, radiation and chemo-therapy. That stupidity and malice is clear to all those who read the available literature on cancer treatment in alternative health care.

Doctors in the USA who know and want to use very effective alternative treatments for cancer are forced to practice medicine in foreign lands, Mexico, for example. We even visited an American doctor’s hospital in Baja, Mexico.

Let us sum up this thought as follows. A person who knows well the scientific and anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of alternative cancer curers and still refuses to use them sins against the obligation to accept known truth. He must refuse the inane and failed protocol of using surgery, radiation and chemotherapy to cure cancer.

All this ties in with modernism, where men propose to invent truth and goodness. Ontological truth comes from God, and man is to use his intellect to discover that truth. Modern man makes himself ludicrous when he denies truth and then says that he is politically correct. Men must live by what is ontologically true, and not by lies that are politically correct. We live in a bastard society, not one according to God. Those desirous of a sensible life here on earth and heaven hereafter must live by ontological truth, both natural truth and supernatural truth.

Proof of this is in the book, imprimatur 1955, called Swift Victory - Essays on the Gifts of the Holy Ghost by Walter Farrell, O.P. and Dominic Hughes, O.P (Sheed & Ward) page 92. “… Wisdom acts in relation to Understanding and Knowledge. They may operate independently of Wisdom, but they are not complete, nor are their finds, reduced to simplicity without it. The penetration of mysteries, the judgment of created causes, are true spiritual perfections in themselves and gives the soul a resemblance to God, but unless they are completed with a superior simplifying unifying Gift of Wisdom, the soul has not received its final ‘seal of resemblance’ to God.” Note two objects of study above. They are “mysteries” and “created causes.” Mysteries are the things of divine faith. Created causes is nature created by God.

We are going to give you some choice quotations from The Catechism Explained. Here is a spiritual truth that was resisted: “Pride caused the so-called Old Catholics to refuse to accept the dogma of Papal Infallibility when it was defined by Pope Pius IX at the Vatican Council in 1870.” They knew the dogma, and they resisted it (refused to believe it), and they left the Church – outside of which there is no salvation.

“Whosoever has committed the sin against the Holy Ghost cannot obtain forgiveness of it from God, and for this reason: Because he thrusts from him the grace of conversion.” All the sins against the Holy Ghost, listed above, can be forgiven if the sinner withdraws his resistance and repents. Only the last one: “final impenitence (of a mortal sin)” cannot be forgiven in this world or in the next. He will not change his mind in death, and after death he will not change his mind either, and that is forever.

“Our Lord says: ‘The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven, neither in this world or in the world to come.’ (Matt. 12, 32). The sick man cannot be cured of his malady if he refuses to take the remedy, which is known to be unfailing, nor can the soul recover from its sickness if it rejects grace, the infallible means of cure. Final impenitence is the only offence which God will not pardon: it is a greater insult to Him than sin itself.” Tie what is given above to: “the remedy, which is known to be unfailing,” to the remedies given by St. Francis de Sales and used on Maria Goretti were not “known to be unfailing.” Hence, they were not known truths. They used an erroneous protocol.

A Cutoff of Actual Grace

In the prayer life of Catholics as directed by the Church and in the sparse (here and there) teaching of imprimatured spiritual books there is a doctrine of the cut-off of actual grace, too firm to be opposed, and furthermore, requiring that it be accepted by all. If a person, knowing this doctrine falls into mortal sin (especially one of the sins against the Holy Ghost) he will be challenged to get out of the sin as soon as possible.

First We shall give the poetic rhyme for the sixth day in the Novena To The Holy Ghost. You can see this novena in Our website or receive the booklet from Us. We have prayed this novena daily since 1976. It is:

If Thou take Thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay,
All his good is turn’d to ill.

The Catechism Explained on page 460 explains that if a patient will not cooperate with the physician the physician will abandon him. So the catechism says of the obdurate: “To him may be applied the words the prophet Samuel addressed to King Saul: ‘Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath rejected thee.’ (I Kings 15, 26). He who has committed the sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be saved, because at the hour of death he is without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and sanctifying grace. His spiritual condition is that of the reprobate.” [end of quote] The conclusion is that the man is still physically alive, but his permanent condition of eternal damnation is already in progress, and it is without any hope of change.

We close with the words spoken by Our Lord as recorded in Matthew 12, 32): “The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come.”

Pray often: Jesus, Mary I love Thee, save souls!