In these times of political, social, and spiritual downturns, we need something that will give us hope! We need a hero who will swoop down and correct all the seemingly unconquerable hatred to bring the light of truth into the stark darkness of our world and uphold the dignity of all due to various actions and ideologies within the current culture. This hero, of course, is Jesus Christ, but the means that He chooses to save us are devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Divine Mercy. These are the answers to what Venerable Fulton Sheen would call “Old Errors under New Labels.” We will see three dangerous errors/heresies coming back under new names. Jansenism = Cancel Culture, Marcionism/Modernism = Progressivism, and Gnosticism = Woke Ideology.
Jansenism was a heresy in which people thought they were so depraved that God could not love them. It was in direct contradiction to God’s plan for humanity. In Christianity, Jesus hangs on the cross with His arms open, offering Himself as a sacrifice of love for our sins. In a Jansenist cross, Jesus hangs on the cross, but he has one hand off the cross pointing down in condemnation because Christ can only see us for our sins and failings. Seeing people only for their faults and failings is what we now know as “Cancel Culture.” We look for every slip-up someone may make, and then we blast it throughout the social media world. Someone makes a mistake, and this mistake gets a thousand “likes,” and these likes are how people define themselves. Someone makes a speech or gives a homily, and we tune out everything good the person says, but instead, we notice only what may have been offensive in it. Then we blast that all over social media to try to ruin the person’s life, career, or, at a minimum, reputation!
Cancel Culture is the new Jansenism, but there is no need to fear. The Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy are the answer. The Sacred Heart shows that God’s love is available, and from that love, we find the best way to define ourselves: how we stand in the heart of Christ. This may mean being convicted of sin so we can repent and break from it, but then we can embrace God’s Mercy. This Divine Mercy also has a part in refuting the New Jansenism. It shows we should not focus solely on people’s faults and failings but to imitate Jesus by seeing what is good in people, to bear wrongs patiently, and try to comfort people rather than humiliate them. These are the works of mercy, the display of Divine Mercy that will save us from the New Jansenism of Cancel Culture. This is the reason St. Paul tells us, “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 4:4-5). Let us aim to stay together with Christ!
Marcionism is another heresy that has engulfed modernity. In Marcionism, the God of the Old Testament was not important because we only needed to focus on the New Covenant. Modernity takes up this heresy with “Progressivism,” as only what is new is important. Society needs to get rid of history and foundations for countries, cities, families, and people. But as St. Augustine tells us, “In the Old Testament, the New is concealed; in the New, the Old is revealed.” Our progress can only be revealed when we build upon what is old, historical, and traditional. The new order of things can only make sense in light of Tradition. Tradition comes alive through what is new. The Divine Mercy image shows us this as it shows Jesus stepping forward with His right foot but touching His Most Precious Sacred Heart while He’s doing it. This is fitting because the Heart is where all that He has revealed is held. Marcionism tells us that we need to hate and destroy history because it is old/antiquated. But Devotion to the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy tell us not to buy into this lie. We must keep our eyes on love, which is antiquated but simultaneously ever-new. You can say “I love you” to someone a thousand times, but each time you say it, your heart and theirs are renewed. It is the same with God’s love; He keeps repeating I love you to us in these devotions. However, modernity has bought into the Neo-Marcionism known as Progressivism and so is deaf to these Words of God. Hence, THE Word of God who is Jesus Christ.
Finally, we look at the heresy of Gnosticism. This is the belief that special knowledge leads to salvation and prosperity, and the lack of this knowledge leads to condemnation. This is what happens with Woke Ideology. People think their “new knowledge” helps them to live in an exalted state, and those who do not have this knowledge must take a critical look at those in the fallen state and then be condemned. In the new Gnosticism, the all-knowing ones recognize your sins even if you do not. They know those who are perpetuating racism, sexism, and all phobias even though they themselves are singling out a particular race, sex, etc., ironically trying to make people afraid (i.e., phobic) to speak out against them.
We must be careful of this because this is the sin of rash judgment (when we say someone is guilty of sin simply based on outward appearances, not actions or words). A second example is that they alone have knowledge of who they truly are, but God does not. So, they determine their pronouns, and everyone else in society must live according to their special knowledge. People are not to live in truth, which St. Thomas Aquinas tells us is when our minds match reality. A third example is that society knows what marriage is, and it does not matter that it fails to conform to its’ objective purposes, which have been lived out since Jesus Christ made it a Sacrament. These objectives are babies, bonding, the raising of children, and a sign of how God loves His people, thus how Christ loves the Church (sacrament). The Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy again correct this heresy. Gnosticism points “to my own truth.” Divine Mercy and the Sacred Heart point to Jesus Christ, who is “the truth” (Jn. 14:6). Now, to be clear, in the spirit of the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy, we must have compassion on people holding this new Gnostic ideology.
We must always remember to stand firm against harmful ideologies, but always love the person as they are made to have peaceful hearts, zealous hearts, and we all! This is the reason these devotions teach and point to a knowledge of God’s love and mercy. A knowledge that does not tear down or deconstruct society with harshness and condemnation but a knowledge that builds people up with truth, which leads to liberation. Jesus tells us this in the passage about the woman caught in adultery. It says:
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again” (Jn. 8: 7-11).
We are to repent and sin no more so we can live in the truth of our dignity. We must not allow ourselves to be defined by sin or failures but only by God’s love. Then “the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:32).
Jansenism, founded by Cornelius Jansen in the 17th century, emphasized original sin, human depravity, and predestination, diverging from Catholic views on free will and grace. Marcionism, started by Marcion of Sinope around 144 AD, rejected the Old Testament and depicted a stark contrast between the God of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, challenging the Catholic canon and the unity of Scripture. Gnosticism, with varied origins possibly including figures like Valentinus in the 2nd century, taught esoteric knowledge for salvation and a dualistic cosmology, conflicting with the Catholic understanding of creation and salvation history. These movements’ teachings on predestination, scriptural interpretation, and the nature of divinity and salvation stand in contrast to Catholic doctrine, which affirms human free will, the holiness of the Old Testament, and a non-dualistic view of the cosmos.
So, in conclusion, we see that old errors can get new labels, but these new labels are not anything the Church has not dealt with before. In all of this, the Church uses the old antidotes of God’s continuous love and mercy communicated in a new way through the devotions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Divine Mercy. These devotions help us to know that God is rich in mercy, so we should not define ourselves or others simply by their faults and failings. We must cancel the cruelty of the New Jansenism Cancel Culture and form a culture of mercy, repentance, and forgiveness. We must stay in God’s story and reflect on it, knowing when we try to destroy history, we attempt to destroy His Story (God’s Story). This is the only story that triumphs throughout time.
Divine Mercy defeats Neo-Marcionism by showing us how to keep moving forward by keeping our hearts in His story, symbolized in Christ’s heart. Finally, we see that knowledge must not be self-determined but must match up to reality, which can only be found in God. The Divine Mercy and Sacred Heart untwist the culture, leading it straight to the joy that God has made it for. Jesus tells us, “I have told you these things so my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (Jn. 10:10). So let us stop living lives of emptiness resulting from these errors with new labels. Let us live in the Heart of Christ, embracing His mercy, peaceful hearts, and zealous hearts, and living the life of the hero God is calling each of us to be.
This essay is based upon the original first published on Catholic365 at https://www.catholic365.com/article/39013/i-need-a-hero-not-a-heresy-how-devotion-to-the-sacred-heart-and-divine-mercy-can-save-our-twisted-culture.html
