A couple weeks ago, a food delivery driver was handing me my order to take inside when he blurted out, "You're that Catholic YouTube guy, aren't you!?"
I'm used to being recognized in Catholic events and localities, but not as much in general public. So after the immediate surprise wore off, I responded in the affirmative.
He then said that he wanted to talk to me. So, I invited him in and he immediately began to explain his theories about the Catholic Church being an instrument of the demonic.
I wrestled with a few of his points, before I eventually realized what the core of his beliefs are which, as it turns out, he was a true believing Gnostic. For me, this was like encountering a creature from ancient mythology - frozen in time. Certainly, many modern people have a whole range of muddled and incompatible ideas taking residence in their heads, of which, segments of Gnosticism may appear, but someone who is a true believer is a rare thing.
We continued to discuss his concerns and I shared some of the points I thought would be relevant. By the end, he agreed to attend mass with our family, although he's yet to follow through on that concession. I intend to follow up with him on that account.
This experience stands out for me for obvious reasons, but a less obvious one is in the novelty of a long-dead heresy like Gnosticism reappearing in this late stage of Western Civilization. As I had mentioned previously, I recently re-read the Ball and the Cross, by GK Chesterton - which I happily recommend.
Without spoiling too much (I hope), in a later chapter, many of the characters who had appeared in earlier episodes are reunited. One of the main characters, wisely interprets this as a sign of the end of the world. He says that such reunions with all the people who influenced the course of your life only happen in two possible scenarios - in a dream or at the end of the world. And since, he concludes, this isn't a dream, it must be the latter.
In his encyclical, Pascendi Dominici gregis, Pope St. Pius X defines Modernism (the great heresy of his/our time) as the synthesis of all heresies. In it, all the heresies of history are now brought together in a kind of unholy reunion.
My unexpected meeting with my delivery driver drew this parallel for me: perhaps, at the end, we will not only be reunited with many familiar faces, but also familiar ideas that we thought were long dead, but now get a second life, just before their final judgement.
