I say, let’s get real and consider it from a personal point of view. I know that Catholics don’t make their own judgment calls, but endeavor to abide by the teachings that come down from the Vatican. And I respect that.
My understanding, from my own religion is that no one can hurt God’s feelings. God’s love is so powerful that no one can dent it. Even Jesus said, that a man can be very hot, or very cold…but luke warm, he spits them out. In other words, God is so pure, that anyone who has strong feelings about Him, positive, or negative, those strong feelings bring him closer to God who is Purity Personified…and such a person’s heart will gradually be cleansed.
Of course, in my religion, we believe that the soul is eternal and the body is only a temporal container. And the the eternal soul is only in the material world, for his reformation…because we are in this world, all fallen angels. And the Garden of Eden is not on this planet. We have all succumbed to temptation of wanting to be independent of God’s authority, and we are here in the realm of apparent birth and death, in the realm where we have to earn our survival by hard work and endless troubles…lifetime after lifetime…until our spirit of independence is humbled and we are ready to “hear” that God is our only shelter, and, as Jesus teaches, the spirit of love of God, our Eternal Father, is our shelter and our salvation.
As long as we are envious of God, and harbor a desire to be master, rather than God’s loving servant…this is blasphemy of the Spirit. And we are all guilty in that way, to varying degrees.
As long as we experience frustration in our endeavors, and consequent irritation and wrath…this is the symptom of wanting to be in control. When actually, God is the Supreme Controller.
As long as we think of ourselves as the owners of land, labor, capital and organization, this is the symptom of being a thief…because God is the Supreme Proprietor of all that be.
As long as we have a desire to enjoy the fruits or our labor…we are claiming God’s position for ourselves…because God is the Supreme Enjoyer, and all of our efforts, every thought, word and deed, should be for the enjoyment of God.
Therefore, God is the Supreme Proprietor (who has created everything). God is the Supreme Controller through His all-pervasive spirit. And God is the Supreme Enjoyer (He created us for His pleasure, to receive our love). As long as we wish to be the owners, the controllers, and the independent enjoyers, this is blasphemy of the Spirit.
The ascetics are seen as renouncers. But in order to come closer to God, we have to renounce our false sense of ownership, our false sense of control, and our desire to find our pleasure in anything other than God’s pleasure. After all, Jesus says we should love God with all of our heart, with all of our strength. Living for God’s pleasure, we come to realize, as David says in the 23rd Psalm, “My cup runneth over.” He is talking of the happiness of the heart that lives only for God’s pleasure. He surrenders to God’s control, by turning the other cheek, knowing that God is moving every hand that offends us. And he uses every facility for the service of God, rather than the service of our little selves… because he acknowledges that God is the proprietor of all that is.
Everything else is blasphemy of the spirit. Even good works, Jesus tells us, is not enough to enable us to enter God’s kingdom. We are here for our redemption. Otherwise, why would Jesus have to come and teach us these things. We are all fallen. The Garden of Eden is not on this planet. The heavenly hosts are with God in the spiritual realm, glorifying Him and praising Him, with every thought, word and deed. And we are here. We have to be sober enough to ask the question: “If God is in heaven with the heavenly hosts, where there is no birth, and no death, no disease, no struggle for survival…and God has placed us here, while He sends His son to give us good instruction…why has he made this arrangement?” He has made this arrangement for reducing our pride, and for helping us to understand our real self-interest, our enlightened self-interest…to love the Lord thy God with all of our hearts.
Anthony says that the Bible doesn’t say what punishment is. But the eternal spirit soul in the material world, experiences the pains of birth, old age, disease and death. We are eternal. But because we identify with this flesh, we suffer terribly. And God loves us so much, that he sends His son to tell us that we should not look for our reward in the this world of birth and death, but that we should love our Lord with all of our heart, and return to our real life in heaven.