I hope my readers understand why I went through Chapters 3, 4, and 5 before going back to Chapter 2 of the Pope's wonderful exhortation on Holiness; I just do not like to deal with heresies! Now, in #47 the Pope tells us that "Gnosticism gave way to another heresy, likewise present in our day. As time passed, many came to realize that it is not knowledge that betters us or makes us saints, but the kind of life we lead. But this subtly led back to the old error of the gnostics, which was simple transformed rather than eliminated.
48. "The same power that the gnostics attributed to the intellect, others now began to attribute to the human will, to personal effort....It was forgotten that everything 'depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy (Rom 9:16) and that "he first loved us" (cf. 1 Jn 4:29).
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