Insipid ethereal gnostics, full of prayers and ideas and only seeking God?
Zenit News Reports:
During his daily Mass at Casa Santa Marta this morning, Pope Francis called on Christians to contemplate what exactly is our Christian identity, and warned against ways it can be weakened, reported Vatican Radio.
It is true that we are sinners, Francis acknowledged. Yet, he added, when we fall down, God’s strength enables us to get up again and continue our journey.
While sin is part of our identity, the Holy Father said, we are sinners with faith in God “who has anointed us, put his seal upon us” and given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge in our hearts.
How many times is Pope Francis going to remind us that we are all sinners? Some may find that encouraging. I find it de-motivating.
So I’m a sinner but I’m anointed. I’m a sinner but the Holy Spirit is a pledge in my heart. It was just yesterday that the Holy Eucharist was also a pledge! How can God be a pledge?
Christians, the Pope said, are those who remain faithful to this God-given identity as the anointed ones who let the Spirit into their hearts, rather than those who follow a particular philosophy.
So although I’m a sinner, I’m a Christian so long as I remain faithful to my ‘identity’ and let the Spirit into my heart. Well that’s easy. Spirit c’mon in! I don’t have to follow a particular philosophy. Well that’s good too. What about a particular theology? No mention.
The Argentine Pontiff went on to warn of three ways in which this witness can be weakened.
The first applies to those who move for a concrete faith in Christ to “a kind of insipid religion of just prayers and ideas,” a type which could be compared to the Gnostics in the ancient world.
A Gnostic was a particularly proud sort of heretic. “Insipid” is an insulting word for people who pray and think, as if prayers and ideas were dull, dead or boring. This is the Pope’s continual straw man.
Who are these terrible people that only pray but never love, who only have ideas but never act upon them? Hint: None of them are liberals and none of them are dissenters.
These “modern Gnostics,” Francis said, are tempted to avoid the scandal of the Cross. Through their “rather ethereal Christian spirituality,” they are content to seek God, Francis said.
Second, there are those who always are searching for some “novelty” in their Christian identity since they have forgotten they have been anointed and given the guarantee of the Spirit. Francis joked that they say: “Where are the visionaries who can tell us exactly what message Our Lady will be sending at 4 o’clock this afternoon?”
Why has Medjugorje been allowed to persist? It has always been what it is. There must be a great deal of money involved.
The Pope is right to speak against it, but why now? Might it perhaps have something to do with the fact that most of its followers are faithful Catholics? Doesn’t it perhaps put devotional Catholics in a bad light, and make those who are attentive to Marian visions look bad? It certainly does, as it always has, but is the Pope saying that all visionaries have that sort of ‘ethereal spirituality’ that ‘only seeks God?’ I hope not but it sounds like it.
It’s clear that Pope Francis is willing to use Church scandals against faithful Catholics. Look at Kansas City Bishop Finn, Bishop Livieres in Paraguay, and now Cardinal Pell. All three of these situations came from overhyped scandals. Medjugorje is just another opportunity to exploit weaknesses.
