Suspend Public Masses, The Devil Does a Dance of Delight

The thing about this so called "advanced" society is that its fear is just as primal and destructive as it was for the poor sods of say, the 14th Century. In some ways, it seems that we progressive moderns are weaker and more foolish than our progenitors, the ones we look at askance as having lacked our enlightened perspectives on science and morality.

I am not a coronavirus "denier". Sickness and death, (as I noted in a prior entry) are very real. I applaud the idea that visits are limited by family and friends at nursing homes where the average age is probably around 80 or 85. I am very much involved with a woman at one such home who is 96. If you are sick, you shouldn't go out. Common sense.

But this frenzy which reminds me more of "Lord of the Flies" (we haven't gotten quite that bad yet, but there is time) than Charles Borromeo taking food to plague victims despite the risk to himself (and I realize that the old common sense, civility and charity probably require something in between), is becoming beyond the pale.

Oh, and soul destroying. . . .

What do our Catholic Clerics do? They begin to suspend Masses around the world. One priest in Italy who went ahead with a Mass is being sanctioned by authorities.

We cannot, you say, have people gathering in a public place during this crisis. But which, I ask you (and I gather that it is a 50 50 proposition) is the more damning of body and soul? For me, it is telling the People of God that they cannot do the one thing that is Central to their Faith, the one thing that will keep them grounded. It is always the case that if a person is sick, they are relieved of the obligation to Sunday Mass. To make some kind of pronouncement, "You don't have to go to Sunday Mass for Three Weeks" is not only redundant but another way of making inroads into the destruction of the already tenuous practice of Catholicism by its followers.

To my reading on the internet, there has NEVER been such a suspension of public Masses in the history of the Church. And whether there has been, or not, I can see nothing that the Devil is enjoying more than that people of faith are not at Mass and present for the Eucharistic miracle.

I was amused (in a paradoxically sad way) that all sorts of public fora are being closed for fear of numbers and contagion, but that at my local Ralph's there were hundreds or more of us gathering provisions of frozen pizza and as one of my friends noted, Ramen. Why aren't they closing these places, well, so far. Because people need the food and provisions therein.

We need the provision for our spiritual selves, perhaps even more than anything else.

There is nothing I can do except hope that my parish doesn't close for business. So far, it hasn't.

And the only thing I can think of, if the closings (and when will they end; when will we all be safe from disease and death?) persist is that there be an increase, if that is possible, of the private Masses, the sine populo.  Maybe every priest in the world can say the Mass at the same time, whatever the time of day in whatever part of the world. And stop the Devil in his dance before it's too late.

I have not been looking at Facebook because of a small Lenten discipline (best I can do alas), but I have decided to post this entry. Pray for the sick. Pray for the dying. Pray for faith. Pray that we do not give the devil his due.