By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
The World Health Organization declared that the epicenter of the Covid-19 has shifted from China where it originated to Italy, the European country hardest hit by the virus. Since last week, most of Italy is on lockdown to control the spread of the virus.
The Diocese of Rome also announced that all Catholic churches in the city will be closed until April 3. Public Masses had already been cancelled, but the faithful had still been able to privately pray in churches at certain times.
Last Saturday we attended the Anticipated Sunday Mass and were informed that there will be no Sunday Masses. I read that night the letter of Bacolod Bishop Patricio Buzon explaining the suspension of the celebration of the Mass until further notice. Later we learned that the same instruction was issued in the Diocese of Kabankalan. The other dioceses probably have the same directives with advice on how to “comply” with their Sunday obligations.
Last week, Bishop Marian Eleganti, auxiliary bishop in the Swiss Diocese of Chur, said he expects “miracles” in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic. Indeed, what the world needs now is a miracle because all the bright minds have failed to find a cure. Some patients recover with the usual flu treatment, but others succumbed.
The virus eludes the medical profession and the world scrambled to contain this modern plague that ironically came 100 years after the deadly pandemic of 1918, the so-called Spanish flu I wrote about last week. I wonder whether we are just having a centennial reminder.
Back to Bishop Eleganti. What is his basis for saying he expects a miracle? He said, “I count on the power and protection of God. How can we capitulate in the face of this supernatural reality?” He is the first to declare we need God into the equation.
Last Saturday I hypothetically asked, if we remove God from the scene, what have we got? Well, it seems we are having wider spread of the disease.
Given the power of God, the bishop said, he was “unable to expect contamination from receiving the Eucharist. Trust in God is nothing abstract, but existential and concrete. In Scripture there was a power going out from Jesus Christ, which is still there today.”
The Gospel of Mark relates the story of a woman “who had a flow of blood for twelve years.” She tried to touch the garment of Christ, convinced that it would be enough to heal her. “And Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, ‘Who touched my garments?’”
Bishop Eleganti “sees that same supernatural power of the presence of God in the Holy Host which is the Body of Christ.” He pointed out that in the Old Testament, there was a clear connection between the “spiritual state” of the people of Israel, including its faithfulness to God, on the one hand, and the “historical events” it had to experience, including plagues and illnesses. The prophets in the Old Testament frequently accused the kings of trusting not in God, but in their own means.
Are we not seeing and experiencing the same lack of trust in God? Are not people doing their thing as if there is no God? Abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, heresies and apostasies, and satanism. How many particles of the Sacred Host been trampled upon to serve the convenience of clergy and faithful alike? How much blood of martyrs been shed to serve political and social ends? The list of sins against God requiring repentance and reparations is long.
The bishop added that the situation is like the message of Our Lady to the seers in Fatima which showed that prayer, dedication to God and faith are connected to the troubles and fates of all peoples. Indeed, is not the Bible replete with instances of God chastising His people? How many saints have warned us of Divine anger and need for reparation?
Volumes had been written about these and we do nothing as if God is just full of mercy but not of justice. Modern man has been lulled to believe that no matter what they do the merciful God forgives, that all are saved, that evil is an invention.
In view of these, what did the saints do? Continued tomorrow.
