Is blasphemy against the Church partially the same as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Could you explain. If not, how different are they? What is the “sin against the Holy Spirit?”

The “sin against the Holy Spirit” mentioned by Jesus in the Gospels (Matthew 12:30-32) is famous for its identification as an “unforgivable sin.” Naturally, since God forgives all sin, the difficulty of this passage and the struggle to explain what exactly this “sin against the Holy Spirit” is has invited a lot of interest from theologians over the centuries. Before going further, I will just list some hypotheses that different theologians have had about what this sin is.

• The Church Fathers Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, and John Chrysostom say that the sin is literally blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Their rationale is based on the context of the passage, in which the Pharisees said that Jesus cast out demons and healed people by the power of a demon, when it was really by the power of the Holy Spirit. This “blaspheming against the Spirit” then represented a rejection of Christ’s power and thus his salvation.
  
• Augustine posited that the “sin against the Spirit” was the sin of final impenitence, when a person perseveres in mortal sin until death. This would represent a total rejection of God and thus, a sin which could not be forgiven (because the person denies God’s mercy).
  
• Thomas Aquinas cites both of these theories and also offers the theory of Peter Lombard: he says that the “sin against the Holy Spirit” is an act of malice, where one commits a sin with an evil will. Sin is always evil, but many sins are not motivated by malice, but instead by human weakness (not having the strength to resist or having a wounded desire) or ignorance (not knowing/understanding what is sin or what is good). Someone who sins maliciously outright refuses the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul to help choose what is good, and instead willingly desires evil itself. This kind of willfully choosing evil for its own sake is very rare because it is so utterly evil. Most sins will not be malicious like this. Even when someone desires something evil, it is often out of weakness or ignorance more than utter malice.
  
• Finally, Thomas Aquinas offers his own ideas about “sins against the Holy Spirit.” He says that what makes these sins unique is that they “[remove] those things which are a means towards the pardon of sins” (ST II-II, Q14, A3, co.). He lists six sins that fit this category, some of which we already mentioned: (1) despair, (2) presumption, (3) impenitence, (4) obstinacy (i.e. a disobedient refusal to recognize the evil of a sin and give it up), (5) envy of the spiritual good of others (because it is a hatred of the increase of God’s grace in the world), and (6) resistance to the known truth (that is, someone who already is intellectually convinced of the truth of the Gospel and refuses to cooperate with it so that he/she can continue to sin freely).
  

I think that the line from Thomas Aquinas that a sin against the Holy Spirit “removes those things which are a means towards the pardon of sins” is especially key to a proper understanding here. What is at the heart of the “sin against the Spirit?” It is the rejection of grace. This is a “blasphemy” against God because it refuses his goodness and, by extension, his mercy toward us. It is “unforgivable” because the one who denies God’s grace closes him/herself off from receiving pardon for sins–forgiveness is a kind of grace. It breeds an attitude of malice because rejecting grace turns the soul toward evil desires. The sins which Thomas Aquinas mentions are all ways in which a person refuses the grace of God (despair is a hopelessness in God’s mercy, presumption makes a false claim on God’s grace, impenitence is a refusal to ask God’s forgiveness, etc.). Even in the case of the original Gospel story, it is a refusal of God’s grace because the Pharisees accused Jesus of acting in collaboration with demons, which meant they refused the Holy Spirit by whose power Jesus acted.

In all these sins mentioned, does that mean that God will not ever forgive a person who commits these sins? By no means! God still desires to forgive all sin. But if a person refuses God’s grace, how can that person be forgiven? They are refusing God’s act of forgiveness! The person essentially makes him/herself an obstacle to receiving God’s love and grace, and this takes the form of various sins we’ve mentioned. But even in this case, Thomas Aquinas remarks that by means of a miracle, God can still remove those obstacles and open a person’s heart to receive his grace and salvation.

Now the original question brings up an interesting thought. Is blaspheming against the Church like blaspheming against the Holy Spirit? After all, the Holy Spirit is at the heart of the Church and guides her in both the truth and in the life of grace (especially through the sacraments). Let’s consider this in light of the things we’ve discussed above. If the heart of the “sin against the Holy Spirit” is the total refusal of God’s grace (and by extension, his mercy and salvation), and we know that the Church is the wellspring of God’s grace in the world, then rejecting the Church is a form of rejecting grace. I wouldn’t say it is as complete or as direct as refusing God’s grace from God himself, but to reject the Church is a kind of refusal of God and so it does in some manner diminish our capacity to receive God’s grace. In a certain manner, then, we can say that it is a “sin against the Holy Spirit” to reject the Church.

That being said, it’s essential to remember that sin requires full knowledge and consent. Sinning through a weakness of will or ignorance of the truth is not nearly as culpable as the knowing, willing rejection of God, which is really a sort of prerequisite to sinning against the Holy Spirit. Those who reject the Church or speak ill against the Church because they are ignorant or perhaps wounded by past experiences don’t really understand what they are actually rejecting. So while it is certainly a rejection of God’s grace to reject the Church, I don’t think it is exactly the same thing as sinning/blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, which represents a total closing off to God’s grace.