By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
How could this corona virus have appeared? Where did it come from? We know it started in Wuhan, China but from where or what? Eating wild animals, they say but why did it come out and so swiftly brought the world to its knees?
Well, a hermit says that “it’s all about sin”. Is God chastising us with this small creature?
John-Henry Westen, editor of LifeSiteNews who daily sends me reports that concerns the Church, shared last March 27 his interview with Fr. Maximilian Mary Dean who believes that the coronavirus is being inflicted upon mankind for our many sins but that if we “cling to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, everything will be all right.”
Fr. Maximilian was a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Heart for 22 years. He was the superior of their contemplative order in Italy and served as postulant director for six years in the United States. When changes were made in their order, Fr. Maximillian prayerfully discerned that there was no future for his contemplative vocation with the Franciscans. Eventually, Bishop Ronald Gainer welcomed him into his diocese as a priest hermit.
John-Henry said, “First off, he told me, and I agree with him, that mankind is being punished with the coronavirus for its many sins” and that large-scale suffering is “always linked to our sins.”
He mentioned how Our Lady of La Salette, an approved apparition that occurred in the 1840s in France, proved that the famine that was occurring at the time was a direct result of men profaning Sunday and using the Lord’s name in vain. He also mentioned how Our Lady of Fatima warned about World War II taking place if men didn’t do penance.
Fr. Maximillian believes that the coronavirus is being inflicted on mankind for not repenting of its ways. He singled out abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and the failure of churchmen to preach and live by the Faith in its fullness as major contributors to sin in these times.
“Any sickness, any suffering, is linked to our fore-bears’ sins and also our own sins,” he said. “How can God not respond in some ways, you know?”
So, what can Catholics do in these times, when we are in isolation? Father Maximillian has a simple suggestion. “Music can help lift us up when we’re getting kind of down and struggling…there are times when the music just helps me to keep my focus on God.”
That does not sound serious, but music can soothe our suffering and if we are conscious of it, especially the rhythm and the lyrics, music can uplift our souls.
This hermit priest added that we should “make our life an extension of the Mass” and offer up our sufferings (like being quarantined) in “atonement for our sins and those of the world.” That’s not going to be easy, he added, but Catholics need to realize that the situations they find themselves are either “willed or they’re permitted by God to draw us closer to Him to help save and sanctify ourselves.” Fr. Maximillian added that Catholics must “hunker down and pray” and enjoy some music to calm their nerves and to focus on God.
Most people however do not see the pandemic as due to sins, individual and collective but a medical situation. Governments respond on this belief: that medicine or no contact will solve the problem. Since the virus spreads through contact then it follows that at one point in time the virus has nowhere to go and dies. A virus, according to experts, dies after 14 days if it had no host.
But for a cure there is none; the body has its own system against infection. Those who recover (rather than cured) are those who are healthy and with excellent immune system. The sick and the elderly are therefore the most vulnerable.
The social media are now full of prayers. When a person prays, he submits to God and by doing so expresses sorrow for sin.
If sin is the cause of this pandemic, why do the innocents die? As I quoted earlier, “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Heb. 12:5-6)
Death is the gateway to heaven.
