Vigil of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord
December 24, 1997
I. Good News of Great Joy for all the People
And in that region there were shepherds out in thefield, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold,I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom He ispleased!" (Luke 2:8-14).
Christmas greetings to my brothers and sisters in Christ, and toall who read or hear these words. May God grant each of us the joy of knowing that the message received so long ago by the shepherds of Judea is the message meant for all persons in all times: Do not be afraid! A Savior has been born to us; the Anointed One, the Messiah and Lord.
On this Christmas Eve nearly 2,000 years after Bethlehem, I pray for the ears to hear again the angel's voice; for a purified heart to believe with all my strength; and for a courageous tongue to shout out to all creation that Jesus Christ is born. The long centuries of sinful misery and bondage are ended. Let hope fill our hearts. Let all sadness be banished. The child in the manger is the Son of God, the one spoken of by the prophets, the liberator of captives, the victor over death, the joy of the nations.
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Father's plan, the only source of eternal life. Listen: Can we not hear the angels praising God? They glorify Him for His saving will, revealed in the Babe of Bethlehem. They set the stars on fire and fill the night skies with a song of joy for us. The Creator of the universe delights in us; His favor rests on us. He loves us-all of us and each of us-with an everlasting love, and Jesus is that love incarnate. No matter how great our sin, Jesus has come for us. No matter how deep our loneliness, Jesus has come for us. Were we the only persons to ever sin, or to ever exist, still God would send His only son to live and love, suffer and die, for us. That is the depth of His love for you and me.
Today is the birth of our Deliverer. Brothers and sisters, my family in faith, let us rejoice together.
II. Let us go Over to Bethlehem
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them (Luke 2:15-20).
The shepherds of the Judean hills were rough and simple men. But perhaps only in their simplicity could they hear the message which drove them urgently toward Bethlehem. They received the words of the angel with joy-and without fear. They acted on the revelation of God with faith, and that faith led them to Mary and Joseph and the child. When they had found Him, they understood, and they made known the message they had been told about this child. And all who heard them were amazed.
Today, in our lifetimes, we must hurry in the footsteps of these shepherds. We should beg God for the grace to be amazed and astonished as we draw close to the manger, because the truth of this child is beyond anything we could hope for, or expect. We should beg God for the grace to be simple and pure of heart, as they were; to radiate the excitement and joy of their discovery, as they did. Let us behold the Messiah. Let us adore Him. Let us be overcome with amazement and go in haste to make known to the whole world all that has been revealed to us about this child.
Ponder what He has done for us. He frees us from the slavery of sin and the fear of death. He comforts us. He encourages us. He
teaches us. He walks with us in our sufferings. He fills us with hope. He offers us life-eternal life-free, without charge or
obligation. Far from violating our freedom, He restores it, dignifies it with His own incarnate holiness, and then adds
immeasurably to it with His victory over death on our behalf, won by dying for our sins on the cross and then rising from the grave. He gives us His Spirit, who breathes new life into our hearts and enables us to love one another-even our enemies and persecutors-as He loves us.
Let us go over to Bethlehem to see this child. And then let us proclaim Him to the world.
III. Woe to Me if I Do Not Preach the Gospel
The beauty of these Gospel passages from Luke, announced at Midnight Mass and Christmas Mass at Dawn, fills me with joy and a tremendous trust in God's love for all of us. Each of us can say with Mary that, "the Mighty One has done great things for me" (Luke 1:49). I thank God every day, but on this Christmas Eve especially, that He sent His only son for me and for you, whom I treasure as my family in faith. It is easy to understand why God loves the people of northern Colorado, and the clergy and women and men Religious who serve them. I arrived here in April as a "stranger in a strange land"; but you welcomed me as a brother, encouraged me, surrounded me with generosity, humor, good counsel and support, and took me into your hearts. Now you are also in my heart, and at the center of my daily thoughts, work and prayer. What a grace it is-unexpected; overwhelming at first; but now such a blessing for me-that God called me to be your servant.
Brothers and sisters, the weeks I spent in Rome this fall for the Holy Father's Special Assembly for America taught me a great deal. It was a time of "good loneliness." In my eagerness to be back home in Colorado among you, I reflected often and deeply on how much good work has already been accomplished by the Church in northern Colorado, and how many outstanding people in our parishes work selflessly for the Gospel. I also thought and prayed about the very many things that remain to be done-and how pressingly we need to do them.
But in working with my brother bishops and the Holy Father, and in walking the streets of Rome, so rich in the witness of centuries of martyrs and saints, I came again and again to the simple truth that what we are called to accomplish first and foremost is not projects or plans or programs, but the preaching of Jesus Christ, in season and out of season. If we do that well, everything else will follow, for the Church Jesus founded on the first apostles is a missionary Church. Without each of us responding to Christ's call to be evangelizers, the Church loses her identity. Where the Church ceases to be missionary, she ceases to be herself.
I return from Rome absolutely convinced that the Church must dedicate the fullness of her resources to a new evangelization (cf. Redemptoris Missio, No. 3). This means all my resources as archbishop, all the resources of the pastoral center and its staff, and the full commitment of our parishes, our schools and all the faithful. My task as bishop is not primarily to be a manager or an executive-though sound stewardship of our resources is obviously vital-but a pastor and a missionary. So too, the people, clergy and Religious of our local Church share the missionary task Jesus gave us all, to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). If we love Him, we must share Him with others-compellingly, persuasively, with all our ingenuity and passion.
That is because the good news of Jesus Christ is decisive: Souls depend on it; all creation depends on it. Jesus alone, and no other, is the answer to humankind's longing for God. His Gospel must be announced, heard, received in faith and retold. It is meant for all people; in fact, evangelization is the sign of a living faith. It is never completed. And all of us-including bishops; and perhaps sometimes especially bishops-have an ongoing need to hear the Good News.
In Rome, many of my brother bishops voiced this same hunger to recover a radical missionary zeal within the Church. By "radical," I mean oriented toward the root, for the times in which we live leave no room for the lukewarm. Zeal cannot be delegated. But it can be shared, and when shared, it multiplies like a spreading fire. This is God's will for His Church in every time and place, and especially today on the threshold of the third Christian millennium. This is God's will for me as archbishop, and God's will for all who are baptized. Radical missionary zeal is the fruit of conversion, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Let us take to heart the first words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). Likewise, on the first Pentecost, Peter said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).
This passionate missionary zeal must be at the core of our life in Christ. All of our pastoral plans and activities, every budget, every hiring decision, indeed every one of our institutional structures, must be reviewed and revised in light of this primary mission of the Church. Our handbook for mission effectiveness is not modern organizational theory, valuable as that may be. Rather, it is the Word of God.
If we sincerely wish to prepare the Church for the third millennium, we should turn first to the Acts of the Apostles. That is what we must become again.
IV. Toward the Great Jubilee
As I write this pastoral letter, the Church has begun her second year of immediate preparation for the Great Jubilee of the Year
2000, as outlined in the apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II, As the Third Millennium Draws Near. My sincere hope and intention is for the Church in northern Colorado to be ready to celebrate the fullness of Jubilee, now that the transition of my predecessor,Archbishop J. Francis Stafford, to Rome is complete and my own arrival and opening months of ministry have concluded.
Jubilee is not merely a calendar date. It is much more than that. It is a holy year of conversion, forgiveness and renewal rooted in Hebrew Scripture and celebrated by the Church throughout her history-but never more urgently or significantly than in 2000. Jubilee is the manifestation and celebration of joy which God pours into the hearts of those who believe the Good News and trust His promises. It is a joy to be shared by all people and with every nation. It is the joy which filled John the Baptist in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth; the joy of Mary's heart as she sang her Magnificat; the joy the shepherds experienced as they beheld the child in the manger and told everyone of the angel's message; the joy of Simeon as he encountered the child who fulfills God's promise of salvation. It is the joy of the man blind from birth who receives his sight from Jesus; the joy of Mary Magdalen meeting her Rabboni in the garden of the resurrection; and the joy of the travelers on the road to Emmaus who recognize the Risen Lord in the breaking of the bread.
Jubilee is Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and the Return of the Lord in Glory. Jubilee is Eucharist-the fullness of Word and sacrament, worship in Spirit and in truth.
In our archdiocesan preparations, I wish to acknowledge first, and thank in a special way, the discernment done by the Emmaus Committee throughout 1995 and 1996. Their recommendations for preparing for the Great Jubilee remain a valuable resource for the local Church. I ask all parishes to review the Emmaus Plan's excellent materials on the Jubilee and adapt these wherever possible to their particular needs.
In light of the Emmaus recommendations, I further ask all pastors who have not already done so to appoint a millennium/Jubilee coordinator for their parishes no later than March 25, 1998, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, with the task of bringing the message of As the Third Millennium Draws Near alive for the local community. On that date also, it is my intention to appoint an archdiocesan Jubilee committee to assist my office in our Church-wide Jubilee preparations, and I welcome the recommendations of the people, through their pastors, of suitable persons to carry out this work.
I ask our archdiocesan communications staff-the Denver Catholic Register, El Pueblo Catolico, The Catholic Hour, along with our radio, newsletter and internet efforts-to begin, with the help of my office, an ongoing, weekly presentation of the themes of Jubilee preparation, continuing through the year 2000. Many very useful materials on the millennium already exist at the national level. It is my hope that our communications tools, beginning in January 1998, will refocus even more clearly on the task of evangelization. An important part of this refocusing will be providing parishes with an awareness of the resources available to prepare fully for the Jubilee.
In like manner, I ask our archdiocesan education staff-again, in concert with my office-to provide our schools, parish millennium coordinators and parish religious education programs with the resources they need to integrate Jubilee preparation into their apostolic work with Catholics of all ages. It is my hope that in addition to pilgrimages and gatherings of Jubilee celebration, various lectures, seminars and courses of study on critical documents of Vatican II, the work of Pope John Paul II, and other materials relevant to the Jubilee will be made available to the general public.
But our Jubilee preparations will neither succeed nor fail at the archdiocesan level. They can only bear fruit if they are lived by our people, clergy and Religious at the parish level. Therefore, in whatever we do to answer the Holy Father's call-no matter how elaborate or simple-we must never misunderstand our Jubilee preparations as just another program or another pastoral burden.
The new millennium should be a new encounter with the person of Jesus Christ; it is He whose birth it marks. In that light, I ask pastors of the archdiocese to open their parishes to all which the Holy Spirit desires. New ecclesial movements and charisms are works of the Holy Spirit and signs of Jubilee; it is my hope that pastors will welcome these groups and movements so that our people, families and parishes may blaze with the fire of the new evangelization. Radical missionary zeal is radical availability to the Holy Spirit. This is the foundation of Jubilee. This is the faith and witness of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the New Advent. She is the perfect disciple, the model of every virtue. She is our guide star to the Jubilee.
As we resume our journey to the Great Jubilee, I entrust this local Church and all our plans and aspirations to her maternal intercession.
May God bless each of you and your families this Christmas season. May He fill you with the joy of the shepherds throughout the coming year. And I ask you to pray for me, your brother, as I pray daily for you.
What do Harry Potter, the Star Wars series, The Matrix, Masonry, New Age and the Raelian cult, which claims to have cloned the first baby, have in common?
Their ideological soil. Identical esoteric ideas suffuse the novels, the movies, the lodges, the "alternative spirituality" and the cloning "atheistic religion," and this ideological soil has a name — Gnosticism.
"Gnosticism" is an eerie word whose meaning eludes our minds. I often meet Catholics who have heard the term but have only a foggy idea of what it means. Perhaps Gnosticism itself is foggy.
Yet, whether we understand it or not, Gnosticism may be, at the beginning of the third millennium, the most dangerous enemy to our Christian faith. Notice, I'm not saying Star Wars or Harry Potter is the danger. They provide us with good lessons and fine entertainment. They are just two signs of the power of the real enemy: Gnosticism.
Why? What is Gnosticism?
In one dense but masterful summary, we find the essential aspects of Gnosticism. In his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II writes:
"A separate issue is the return of ancient Gnostic ideas under the guise of the so-called New Age. We cannot delude ourselves that this will lead toward a renewal of religion. It is only a new way of practicing Gnosticism — that attitude of the spirit that, in the name of a profound knowledge of God, results in distorting his word and replacing it with purely human words. Gnosticism never completely abandoned the realm of Christianity. Instead, it has always existed side by side with Christianity, sometimes taking the shape of philosophical movement, but more often assuming the characteristics of a religion or para-religion in distinct, if not declared, conflict with all that is essentially Christian."
Let's examine what the Holy Father is saying about Gnosticism.
'Secret Knowledge'?
First, its nature. Strictly speaking, Gnosticism was an esoteric religious movement of the first centuries A.D., a movement that rivaled Christianity. In a broader sense, it is an esoteric knowledge of higher religious and philosophic truths to be acquired by an elite group. John Paul alludes to the first meaning with the phrase "ancient Gnostic ideas" and to the second as an "attitude of the spirit" that "has always existed side by side with Christianity."
A Gnostic is one who has gnosis (a Greek word for "knowledge") — a visionary or mystical "secret knowledge" capable of joining the human being to the divine mystery. Gnostics, the Pope remarked, distort God's word "in the name of a profound knowledge of God." What is this "knowledge" they claim to have?
The Gnostic worldview is dualistic. Reality consists of two irreducible elements: one good, the spiritual world (the realm of light); and the other evil, matter (the realm of darkness). Two supreme powers or gods oppose each other — the unknowable and ineffable god, from whom a series of lesser divinities emanated, and the evil god, or demiurge, who produced the universe from foul matter and possesses it with his evil demons.
Man is composed of body, soul and spirit. The spirit is man's true self, a "divine spark," a portion of the godhead. In a tragic fall, man's true self, or spirit, was thrown into this dark world and imprisoned in each individual's body and soul. The demiurge and the demons keep man's spirit as a slave of the material world, ignorant of his "divine" condition. Hence the need for a spiritual savior, a messiah or "Christ," to offer redeeming gnosis. This savior is a guide, a master who teaches a few "spiritual" people — the Gnostics — about their true spiritual selves and helps them to wake up from the dream world they live in. The Gnostics would be released from the material world, the non-Gnostics doomed to reincarnation.
What is an example of how these beliefs are embodied in popular stories? Consider the Star Wars movies. There is much good in them. The stories are admirable in many ways. But they are chock-full of Gnosticism.
Star Wars is the clash between the two supreme powers of the universe — "the force" and the "dark side of the force," which is exploited by the "emperor" (the demiurge) and his demons (Darth Vader, the siths). The Gnostic heroes are the Jedi, who possess the "secret knowledge" of their own spiritual powers; unlike the non-Gnostic, they are able to use "the force" well. Each Jedi has a master, who trains him to acquire this redeeming gnosis. Ben Kenobi, for instance, was for a time the master of Anakin and Luke Skywalker. The greatest spiritual guide in the saga is Yoda, a respected senior member of the Jedi council and a general in the clone wars.
As Christ's followers, we must sort out the good seed from the weeds (cf. Matthew 13:24-30). I propose a distinction between the Gnostic values and its philosophy.
Gnostics promote, without a doubt, positive values. They draw a clear-cut separation between good and evil, stress man's spiritual dimension, instill high and noble ideals, foster courage and concern for others, respect nature, reject materialism and often reject hedonism, too.
Such values shine like pearls in an age of moral relativism that thirsts for gain, the ephemeral, the hedonistic. Aren't these some of the virtues and ideas we love in Star Wars and Harry Potter?
The other side of the coin, however, is not so positive. The good values are rooted in a Gnostic philosophical understanding of man, God and the world that is, as the Pope put it, "in distinct, if not declared, conflict with all that is essentially Christian." Why?
Note the opposite views. The Christian Creator is love — a Trinity of persons who wants to establish with us a personal relationship of love — quite different from that unknowable God, usually conceived, like the Star Wars "force," as an impersonal energy to be manipulated.
The God of Revelation made everything good — the angels, the world, our body and soul. Evil is not a force of the same rank as God; rather, it springs from angels' and men's personal free choice. Salvation is offered by God in Christ, man's only redeemer.
Salvation is a grace — a free gift from God that Man can neither deserve nor earn. It is not gnosis, "secret knowledge" we can acquire by ourselves with the help of mere human guides or Christlike figures. In short, the Christian religion is a "dialogue" of love between God and man, not a self-centered "monologue" in which man divinizes himself. That's why John Paul says Gnosticism cannot lead "toward a renewal of religion."
It distorts God's word, "replacing it with purely human words."
Then and Now
Finally, the Pope alludes to the historic span and manifestations of this ideology. "Gnosticism," he says, "never completely abandoned the realm of Christianity … sometimes taking the shape of philosophical movement but more often assuming the characteristics of a religion or para-religion."
Let's look at a few representative Gnostic movements in history.
With the rise of Christianity, ancient esoteric ideas developed into Gnostic syncretism. Thus, in the first centuries A.D., the Apostles and the Church Fathers had to combat several "Christian" Gnostic religious systems, such as those of Cerinthus, Manander, Saturninus, Valentinus, Basilides, Ptolemaeus and the ones contained in the apocryphal gospels: of truth and perfection, and of Judas (Iscariot), Philip and Thomas.
The third-century dualist Manichaean church or religion spread from Persia throughout the Middle East, China, southern Europe and northern Africa, where the young Augustine temporarily became a convert.
Teachings similar to Manichaeism resurfaced during the Middle Ages in Europe in groups such as the Paulicians (Armenia, seventh century), the Bogomilists (Bulgaria, 10th century), the Cathars or Albigensians (southern France, 12th century), the Jewish Cabala and the metaphysical speculation surrounding alchemy.
Modern times witnessed the resurgence of Gnosticism in philosophical thought — the Enlightenment, Hegel's idealism, some existentialist currents, Nazism, Jungian psychology, the theosophical society and Freemasonry.
More recently, Gnosticism has become popular through successful films and novels, such as Harry Potter, Star Wars and The Matrix. It has also gained followers among the ranks of ordinary people through pseudo-religious "movements," such as the New Age and the Raelian cult.
These contemporary Gnostic expressions should certainly inspire us in the good values they promote. At the same time, we should be cautious — examine their philosophical background and reject what is incompatible with our Christian faith.
At the beginning of the third millennium we seem to face the same old clash between Christianity and Gnosticism. Both fight to conquer the "soul" of this world — the minds and hearts of peoples and cultures.
For this reason, defeating Gnosticism has become an essential task of the New Evangelization. "Against the spirit of the world," the Holy Father says in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, "the Church takes up anew each day a struggle that is none other than the struggle for the world's soul."
Into the Gnostic Wonderland
Morpheus, a man with circular mirrored glasses, approaches Neo Anderson, a young man who feels something is wrong with the world.
"You are a slave, Neo," the man says. "You, like everyone else, were born into bondage — kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste or touch. A prison for your mind."
Morpheus holds two pills in his hands — one blue, one red.
"This is your last chance; after this, there is no going back," he says. "You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." Neo takes the red pill.
Sounds familiar? It is a memorable scene of the hit movie The Matrix.
Morpheus' offer visualizes what our culture often offers. The blue pill stands for materialistic relativism — believing there is no truth nor right and wrong, or, as Morpheus put it, "You believe whatever you want to believe."
Consequently, "You wake in bed" — you enjoy yourself in comfort, money, hedonistic pleasures, social success. We often see the blue pill available over the counter in books, colleges, courts, institutions, the media.
The red pill stands for Gnosticism — believing reality is ultimately divine and can be manipulated by whoever has "secret knowledge." This is "Wonderland," and it, too, can now be bought over the counter like the blue pill.
Thank God there is a third option Morpheus didn't take into account — something neither blue nor red but transparent: Call it water. Water stands for our Christian faith. Christ, the water of life (see John 7:37-39), came to bring us the "living water" of "eternal life" (see John 4:7-13) through the water of baptism.
The blue and red pills counter the effects of water in different ways. Materialistic relativism tries to destroy all objective truths and values. Gnosticism, instead, proposes alternative truths and values. Moreover, it interprets Christianity as esoteric knowledge, not to destroy it but to distort it.
Neo, Vader and Voldemort
First, where is Gnosticism in today's culture? You might bump into it in successful films and novels, such as Harry Potter, Star Wars and The Matrix, or face it in "religious" and "philosophical" movements, such as the New Age, the Raelian cult and Freemasonry.
Note the difference between the three media products and the three movements: The movies and the books do not instill a credo you must believe in if you want to watch, read and enjoy them. In fact, they are commendable in many ways — they provide us with elevated entertainment, valuable lessons and admirable heroes.
The movements, instead, are credos one must embrace in order to be an authentic New Ager, Raelian or Mason. As Catholics, we might be inspired by the noble ideals of these movements but not by their philosophy. Their philosophy is "Wonderland." And "Wonderland" is not "Christianland."
What is the Gnostic "Wonderland"?
The story of The Matrix shows it.
Morpheus reveals to Neo that human beings are trapped in a false "reality." Why? Some time ago men created the Matrix, an artificially intelligent entity. Needing man's energy to survive, the Matrix became a computer-generated dreamworld — the world we think we live in — to enslave men in a huge lab and suck their energy with the help of "agents."
However, a man succeeded in freeing the first human beings and teaching them the truth before he died.
The Oracle (a prophet) predicted this man will return to liberate all people and bring them to Zion, the last human city. Thus, a few freed men and women free others, looking for this man. Morpheus believes Neo to be the One and tries to free his mind so Neo can operate as the savior he is.
Here is the story's translation into the Gnostic worldview:
Two supreme powers or gods fight one another for supremacy. One is the pleroma ("fullness" in Greek) — the good unknowable godhead, from whom many spiritual entities called aeons emanated. The other is an evil, deformed god, called the demiurge ("craftsman") that fashioned the flawed universe, along with archons, or demons.
Reality is dualistic. Everything is spiritual, particularly — but not solely — man's spirit. This is man's own true self, and it is good, for it is a portion of the pleroma's divine essence. Everything material, like man's body, is foul and evil, because it was produced by the demiurge and his demons to keep man's spirit a slave in the material prison of creation. Thus, every human being, knowingly or unknowingly, serves this false god and lives ignorant of his divine condition. His fate is reincarnation.
How does one free oneself from matter and join the divine pleroma? Through secret, esoteric knowledge called gnosis — the visionary or mystical awareness of one's own divinity. One becomes a Gnostic by following spiritual guides or masters, historical figures of the "Christ," such as Jesus of Nazareth, Buddha, Moses, Mohammed and Rael.
Review the story of The Matrix and our introductory scene and you will understand the philosophy.
Zion and mankind stand for the pleroma. The Matrix and its "agents" are the demiurge and his archons, who created the illusory world to enslave man and hinder him from realizing their spiritual powers. Morpheus and his crew are the Gnostic. Morpheus is also Neo's guide. Neo will become the ultimate "Christ," the One who will offer redeeming gnosis to the rest of the mortals.
Consider the Star Wars series. "The force" is the good godhead opposed by "the dark side of the force," which the emperor (the demiurge) and his siths (the archons) employ to enslave all peoples. Only the Jedis (the Gnostic) are capable of transcending the physical laws of nature and join "the force" to use it for the salvation of all. Each Jedi acquires gnosis with the help of a master. Yoda, for instance, trained Ben Kenobi, and Ben Kenobi trained Anakin and Luke Skywalker. In the last scene of The Return of the Jedi, you see Yoda, Ben Kenobi and Anakin "saved" — "energized" with "the force."
Harry Potter follows a similar pattern. It portrays the clash between the "white" magic (the pleroma) practiced by the witches and wizards (the Gnostic) and the dark arts exploited by the Dark Lord Voldemort (the demiurge) and his followers in the Slytherin House (the demons). Every professor at Hogwarts is, of course, a master, with Albus Dumbledore as the school headmaster. The non-Gnostic are called the Muggles, ignorant human beings who, like the Dursley family, are subject to the laws of the material world.
We expect Harry Potter to finally become the "Christ," the savior. Note the boy never becomes a wizard and never acquires magic powers. He only becomes aware, through training, that he is a wizard and has these powers from birth. That's gnosis.
Most people who enjoy these three popular sagas might be inspired by their positive values but do not take their Gnostic wonderland seriously. But to leave fiction and enter the New Age movement, the Raelian religion or Freemasonry requires a "conversion" of the initiated. To join, you must swallow the red pill.
The pleroma is the Mason's inaccessible great architect and his divinities, the New Agers' impersonal "energy" or the Raelians' community of wise extraterrestrial scientists called Elohim who created all life on earth 25,000 years ago. The three groups identify the demiurge with all "dogmatic" churches and religions but especially with the Catholic Church — with her archons (the Church leaders and particularly the Pope) she traps men in the false "reality" of Christian Revelation, hindering them from the self-consciousness of their own divinity.
The Gnostic are the Masons, the New Agers, the Raelians. Many historical figures have incarnated the "Christ," known as Maitreya in Masonic and New Age circles and as Rael ("the messenger") among Raelians.
Water or the Red Pill?
On the surface Gnostic wonderlands might look Christian — they promote religiosity, spiritual values, concern for others, respect for nature, the sense of mission, rejection of materialistic relativism. How can we discern if a movie, a novel, a movement or an organization is rooted in a Gnostic or in a Christian worldview?
We need to examine its underlying concept of God, man and the world. First, God: Is God the only supreme good power or is there another evil force of the same rank? Is God somebody with whom we have a personal relationship of love or something like a force to be used? Is Jesus of Nazareth the only savior or are there many "Christs"?
Second, check the notion of man: Is he a loved creature or a portion of divinity to be freed? Is man a unity of body and soul or just a spirit imprisoned in a body? Does man's salvation come from a gratuitous gift of God (grace) or from "secret knowledge" acquired by training (gnosis)?
Third, think of the world: Is creation good and real or evil and illusory — a sort of prison?
The answers unveil the pervading philosophy. A fictional story, of course, does not need to present the Christian truths. The question is whether or not there is room for a Christian worldview in the story.
Mark this substantial difference: A red pill is a man-made drug that may fail to cure; water, instead, is a God-made basic element for life. Gnosticism is a man-made self-centered philosophy — a "monologue" in which man divinizes himself and fails in the attempt. The Christian revelation is a God-made gift — "dialogue" of love that God establishes with man for eternal life.
The Christian revelation is Christ. To definitively discern what is Christian from what is not use what I call "St. John's criterion": "By this you know the spirit of God: Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world" (2 John 4:2-3).
At the beginning of the third millennium three worldviews compete to conquer the minds and hearts of peoples and cultures, the world's soul: materialistic relativism, Gnosticism and Christianity. The blue pill is easy to recognize. But the red pill is often dissolved in apparent water.
The New Evangelization demands a clear-cut separation between Gnosticism and Christianity if we want to bring every thirsty person to the Water of Life.
Copyright © 1997 The Archdiocese of Denver. Used with permission.
