A reader writes:

I read that if a person repents, God will forgive him.  But the Bible has many examples of people who repented, but weren’t forgiven.  Judas "repented of his sin," but the Bible implies he is now in Hell.  Simon Magus repented, but Peter only said that God will "perhaps" forgive him, like it’s not certain he will.  Esau in Hebrews 11 repented, but to no avail.

I am so confused about this.  Will God forgive our sins when we repent and Confess, what about the examples above?

The Council of Trent infallibly defined the following:

If any one saith, that in the Catholic Church Penance is not truly and properly a sacrament, instituted by Christ our Lord for reconciling the faithful unto God, as often as they fall into sin after baptism; let him be anathema [Trent, Canons on the Sacrament of Penance, 1].

Any sin that you commit after baptism is thus one for which Christ instituted the sacrament of penance so that you can be reconciled. As long as you repent and go to confession, the sin will be forgiven.

Do not worry further about this. To do so is scrupulous.

Regarding the three biblical figures you mentioned:

• Judas didn’t repent and go to confession. He got sorry and killed himself. Repentence means turning your will away from grave sin so that you do not will to commit grave sin. Judas obviously didn’t do that because he went out and committed what was known at the time to be a grave sin. He may have experienced regret for his actions, but he did not turn his will away from grave sin. He despaired and went further into it.
• Simon Magus appeared to repent, but Peter couldn’t know for sure what was in his heart. Hence Peter phrased himself tentatively.
• Esau didn’t commit an act of sin; he committed an act of foolishness: He sold his birthright. When you sell something to someone, the only way you can get it back is if they’re willing to sell it back to you. Jacob wasn’t willing to sell it back to Esau, so Esau didn’t get his birthright back. This is not the case of a person being unforgiven by God. It’s the case of a person making a foolish deal and then having "seller’s remorse." That’s used in Hebrews 12 as an example to us that we must repent while there is still time (i.e., during this life), but there is nothing in Scripture that implies Esau is damned. In fact, he ends up forgiving and being reconciled with Jacob, even though he no longer has the birthright.

The reader also writes:

I read on your website that if a person believes he has committed the unforgivable sin, it means he hasn’t, since repentance is a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in him, convicting him of sin.

That’s not quite what I said: I said wanting to repent (i.e., wanting to turn your heart away from grave sin) shows that the Holy Spirit is still at work in your heart. It’s not just believing that you haven’t committed the unforgivable sin; it’s wanting to repent that shows that you haven’t totally closed yourself off to God’s grace.

However, this isn’t very comforting, because — how does a person know if his repentance is the kind that comes from the Holy Spirit, instead of the kind that judas had, the worldly sorrow described in 2 Corinthians?

The solution to the issue is clear. If you read 2 Corinthians 7, we find Paul saying:

9: As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but
because you were grieved into repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so
that you suffered no loss through us.
10: For godly grief produces a repentance  that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief  produces death.

Paul contrasts two kinds of sorrow: godly grief that leads to repentance and salvation and worldly grief that leads to death.

The contrast between the two depends on whether repentence is produced. If you repent then it was godly grief. If you don’t repent then it was what Paul calls "worldly" grief.

Godly grief is thus the sorrow for sin that makes you want to repent (i.e., makes you want to turn your will away from grave sin). Worldly grief is sorrow for one’s actions that does not make one want to turn one’s will away from sin (as when Judas despaired and plunged further into grave sin).

So do not worry about these issues. If you feel that you have committed a sin, turn your will away from it, go to confession, and do not allow scrupulous worries to mar the peace that God wants you to have as a result of the sacrament.

As long as you turn to God (as opposed to despairing and turning further away from him), you will be forgiven.

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