Dear Friends,
In Chapter Two of Pope Francis’ letter to you on holiness he mentions two false forms of holiness that have been
condemned by the church over the centuries, but still exist today. Pope Francis sees these two heresies as causing
problems for every day Christians. He says,
“Here I would like to mention two false forms of holiness that can lead us astray: gnosticism and pelagianism. They
are two heresies from early Christian times, yet they continue to plague us. In our times too, many Christians, perhaps
without realizing it, can be seduced by these deceptive ideas, which reflect an anthropocentric immanentism disguised
as Catholic truth. Let us take a look at these two forms of doctrinal or disciplinary security that give rise ‘to a
narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyses and classifies others, and instead
of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying. In neither case is one really
concerned about Jesus Christ or others.’
Gnosticism presumes ‘a purely subjective faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideas and bits of
information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own
thoughts and feelings.’ Thanks be to God, throughout the history of the Church it has always been clear that a
person’s perfection is measured not by the information or knowledge they possess, but by the depth of their charity…
Gnostics think that their explanations can make the entirety of the faith and the Gospel perfectly comprehensible. They
absolutize their own theories and force others to submit to their way of thinking. A healthy and humble use of reason
in order to reflect on the theological and moral teaching of the Gospel is one thing. It is another to reduce Jesus’
teaching to a cold and harsh logic that seeks to dominate everything…
When somebody has an answer for every question, it is a sign that they are not on the right road. They may well be
false prophets, who use religion for their own purposes, to promote their own psychological or intellectual theories.
God infinitely transcends us; he is full of surprises. We are not the ones to determine when and how we will encounter
him; the exact times and places of that encounter are not up to us.
Someone who wants everything to be clear and sure presumes to control God’s transcendence. Nor can we claim to
say where God is not, because God is mysteriously present in the life of every person, in a way that he himself
chooses, and we cannot exclude this by our presumed certainties. Even when someone’s life appears completely
wrecked, even when we see it devastated by vices or addictions, God is present there. If we let ourselves be guided by
the Spirit rather than our own preconceptions, we can and must try to find the Lord in every human life. This is part of
the mystery that a gnostic mentality cannot accept, since it is beyond its control.
It is not easy to grasp the truth that we have received from the Lord. And it is even more difficult to express it. So we
cannot claim that our way of understanding this truth authorizes us to exercise a strict supervision over others’ lives.
Here I would note that in the Church there legitimately coexist different ways of interpreting many aspects of doctrine
and Christian life; in their variety, they ‘help to express more clearly the immense riches of God’s word.”
There is not enough room here for the discussion of the challenge of pelagianism. More of that next week.
Peace,
Fr. Damian
Pastor’s Letter