Socialism and Gnosis by Cunha Alvarenga

Socio-Political Issues

Socialism and Gnosis - Part I

Poverty: Which One Is Evangelical?
Which Is Gnostic?

Cunha Alvarenga

Throughout the Gospel there is a sad reality: the earthly way men have envisaged the divine message given to us by our Savior. To the unbelievers of all times these words of the Son of God to Nicodemus apply: “If I have spoken to you of earthly things and you believe not, how will you believe if I shall speak to you of heavenly things? (Jn 3:12).

In our epoch there are many who try to de-sacralize and de-mythify the Church, placing the eternal life between parentheses in order to primarily seek social-economic development. Doing so, they forget the lesson of the Gospels on earthly things; at the same time they make an abyss between themselves and heavenly things, which represents the very heart of the message Our Lord Jesus Christ delivered to the world.

Our Lord blessed the poor of spirit, not just poverty
as a social condition - Sermon of the Mount by Fra Angelico

The theme par excellence that concerns progressisvist Catholics is the so-called reform of structures, through which they want to implant social and economic egalitarianism. They are not concerned with diffusing the virtues, but occupy themselves with things of this world in order to arrive at a system of communal property and services. To implant a socialist or communist State, one of their most urgent measures is to destroy the capitalist regime, which is based on economical inequality among men, private property, different classes, salaries and profits as well as in the free disposition of one’s goods and their transmission by inheritance.

In these articles we want to show that Progressivism, Socialism and Communism go against not only the presuppositions of the capitalist regime, but any social and economic order based on Natural Law.

Remember the fable of La Fontaine about the bear and flies. The bear strikes up a friendship with an old man. While the old man is sleeping, the bear brushes away the flies in case they should bother him. It ends up killing its protégée by swatting a particularly bothersome fly off the old man’s nose with a stone. We see that under the pretext of swatting away the flies - the abuses of Capitalism - Progressivism uses Socialism as the bear used the stone to crush the head of the poor whom it pretends to help.

Detachment from earthly goods

Let us first point out how Our Lord preached detachment from earthly goods. He taught us:

“Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth” (Mt 6: 19);
“Be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on.” (Mt 6: 25);
“Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Mt 6: 33).

The symbol of socialism, a fist holding a rose

Socialism pretends to care for the poor, but actually is another form of the old Gnosis

He taught us that we should not have excessive concern about our food, drink or dress, which is characteristic of pagans and worldly people (Lk 12: 29-30). Against those who give their hearts to the quest for earthly goods or make use of them in a way displeasing to God, He launched these curses: “But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation. Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep” (Lk 6: 24-25).

Remarking on the episode of the rich young man who did not follow Him because of his many goods, Our Lord told His disciples: “How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mk 10: 24-25).

Indeed, it is a general tendency to put one’s trust in wealth: those who have it, want more; and those who don’t, want to have it. This “trust in riches” is the evil that Our Lord alludes to in the Sermon of the Mount when He praises the poor of spirit.

Avarice is the daughter of this lack of confidence in God: “Take heed and beware of all covetousness: for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses.” (Lk 12: 15). Our Lord had this to say to the wealthy man who built bigger barns to store more foodstuff: “Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee. And whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God” (Lk 20: 20-21).

It is good to emphasize that in the Sermon of the Mount Our Lord does not simply say “Blessed are the poor,” but “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5: 3). This poorness of spirit refers to the detachment and indifference we must have and exercise with regard to earthly goods. All our earthly and spiritual goods must be referred to God and used as instruments to attain eternal salvation.

When does Gnosis enter the picture?

Different from this balanced attitude before the goods of this world is the terrible heresy of Gnosis, which rose in the early days of the Church. Instead of condemning the unbridled use of riches as the Church always did in infallibly interpreting the Gospels, the Gnostics censure the ownership of goods per se. Further, they present poverty not as an evangelical counsel to be followed by some, but as a condition to be imposed on all humanity.

Occult egalitarian symbols are found in the different Gnoses

An inevitable consequence of this position is that Gnosis – in all its representations throughout History from apostolic times to our days – was always an adept of Socialism and Communism, in both their open or disguised forms. Thus, from the early followers of Basilides and Carinthus to the present day Christian-Socialists, we see Gnosis going through all forms of collectivist perversions.

The condemnations being made of the present day capitalist regime by progressivist Bishops and priests must be studied, therefore, under the light of the history of Gnosis, which is reaching its culminating phase with Progressivism.

Since progressivists present this fight as an exigency of the Gospels, let us see what the New Covenant teaches us about the fundaments of the economic life.

Our Lord clearly says that He did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them, without doing away with even “one jot, or one tittle” of them (Mt 5: 17-18). Instead, the Gnostics accept neither Natural Law nor the Ten Commandments that codified it. They profess a manifest pessimism toward all material creation, attributing to matter all the evils of the world. This is why they reject the human nature of Jesus Christ, that is, they refuse to adore the Sacred Humanity of the Word Incarnate.

We make this distinction to help our readers, warning them not to accept the smuggled poverty of Vatican II that progressivists are trying to sell us as if it were truly evangelical. Be careful to give the word poverty its correct meaning, and not an illusionary and occult meaning that corresponds to the ideals of Gnosticism.

Continued

Share

Follow us

Posted February 25, 2009
Translated from Catolicismo, June 1971

Related Topics of Interest

  Evangelical Poverty Is Not a Virtue for All

  Distributists Misleading Their Audience about Capitalism

  A Distributist Manifesto Spiced with Communism

  St. Thomas against Distributism

  Socialism and Distributism in Catholic Clothing

  Nazism: A Gnostic Sect

   TIA Is neither Nazi nor Anti-Semitic

  Inequalities Are the Base and Bond of Society

  Revolution and Counter-Revolution: Historic Overview

Related Works of Interest