Fr. Adrian Mascarenhas –
Question: In his recent apostolic exhortation on holiness, Gaudete et Exultate, Pope Francis speaks of two enemies of holiness, namely, Gnosticism and Pelagianism, both of which are ancient heresies. What are they and why are they relevant today?
Answer: When Christianity moved out of its Jewish setting and entered the Greco-Roman world, it had to contend with a number of ideologies which influenced the thought and culture of believers. Some of these were absorbed and became a part of Christian theology itself. Others on the other hand posed a threat to the Church by diluting the Gospel and even giving rise to heresies and false churches.
Gnosticism and Pelagianism are two early exaggerations of the Christian message, which focused exclusively on the intellect and the will, respectively, as means of salvation. They therefore led to a serious distortion of the Gospel and its message. Pope Francis believes that these tendencies have not totally disappeared from our community today, and in fact they are still leading to “aberrations” in our spiritual lives. Here is a brief description of these two heresies as explained by Pope Francis.
GNOSTICISM
Gnosticism, in the context of the Pope’s message, is the belief that information is equal to salvation. The ancient Gnostics (roughly from the 1st to the 5th century) believed that the mind is the most important part of the human person, and therefore, to be saved, knowledge was the most important thing to be pursued. They therefore classified human beings into an elite group who would be saved, and the general public who lacked this specialised knowledge (or gnosis) and would therefore be condemned.
The Gnostics had a tendency to degrade the human body, which led to two extremes in their morality: some of them adopted extreme asceticism, holding that the body was evil and that one must try to weaken its hold over the mind. The others held that the body was irrelevant to one’s salvation, and that one could do whatever one liked with it – which led to the opposite extreme of licentious behaviour and sexual immorality.
Pope Francis points out that there are many in this world who try and impose their intellectual judgements on others, and consider themselves perfect because of their knowledge. He quotes in this context the words of St. Francis of Assisi to St. Anthony of Padua: “I am pleased that you teach sacred theology to the brothers, provided that… you do not extinguish the spirit of prayer and devotion during study of this kind”. In other words, the Gospel should not be converted into a set of intellectual exercises. Rather, it should be accepted as a way of life that should go hand in hand with mercy, with love for neighbour, and with devotion to God.
PELAGIANISM
Pelagianism is the belief that human beings can save themselves through their good works, without the necessity of God’s grace. This idea was introduced by an Irish monk named Pelagius, and took root in the beginning of the fifth century. While the older Gnostics emphasized the intellect, the Pelagians emphasized the will. They held that there was no such thing as original sin, and Adam’s fault was only that he set a bad example for us.
Similarly, Christ did not really save us by dying on the Cross, but he only gave us a good example so that we could save ourselves by following his teachings. Ultimately, like Gnosticism, this led to the sin of pride, and the belief that salvation is not a gift of God but is something that we earn through our own merits.
This leads to a distorted understanding of the faith. According to Catholic teaching, nothing that we do can merit our salvation, because there is an infinite distance between God and humanity. We can never earn anything from him as such. However, he offers us his friendship and invites us to live a life of grace, which is something totally undeserved by us.
Hence, the Church teaches that we should not put our trust in our own good deeds, but strive to cooperate with God’s gifts in order to grow in holiness by struggling against evil. As Christians, we are called to avoid excessive concern for the law, for our prestige, for programmes of self-help, and even for the Church’s liturgy and doctrine. Rather, we should allow the Spirit to lead us in the way of love.
CONCLUSION:
As Catholics, one of the prime sins to be avoided is the sin of pride. But even a faithful Christian may sometimes take excessive pride in his own knowledge of the faith or his own self-control and will power. The Church is not an elite association of perfect people; it is more like a hospital where sick people come to receive God’s mercy and find their way to God through Jesus Christ. If we keep this in mind, we can truly open our lives to receive the grace of the Lord, and we realise that all our knowledge, all our merit, would be of no avail, but for the fact that Jesus has saved us by dying for us on the Cross and giving himself to us in the Holy Eucharist.
Fr. Adrian Mascarenhas has served as the Assistant Parish Priest of St. Patrick’s Church and Ascension Church, and has completed two years of ministry at St. Peter’s Church, Bangalore, India. He received his licentiate in sacred theology from Dharmaram Vidya Kshethram and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Fundamental Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome.
Thank ytou Father