I do not want to be cavalier about this pandemic and the thousands upon thousands who have died and others in previous ages who have died of pandemics like the plague.
We are more sophisticated today and of course we feel we can beat this thing on our own with experts, the high priests of science telling us what to do, social/physical distancing and of course, wearing the ubiquitous mask.
I don't want to get sick or die just like anyone else, but I have buried a ton of people in my 40 years as a priest and what I have learned is that accident or sickness or old age will lead to the one thing none of us will escape, death, judgment, heaven and hell.
Our puritanical society wants everyone to follow lock-step in preventing or delaying the four last things. Why? a profound lack of faith and an easy life up until now where medical science, the new god, tells us how to save ourselves and others but leaves the true God and the four last things out of the equation.
I'm not saying not to wear a mask, isolate from everyone or whatever you wish to do to save yourself or others, but ultimately the only One who will save you is Jesus Christ.
This is from CS Lewis in 1942, Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction:
From the book: “The Devil's Letters to His Nephew”by C. S. Lewis(1942)
“And how did you manage to bring so many souls to hell at that time?
-Because of fear. -Ah, yes. Excellent strategy; old and always current.
But what were they afraid of? Fear of being tortured? Fear of war? Fear
of hunger? -No. -Fear of getting sick. -But then, no one else got sick
at that time? -No. -Yes, they were sick. -I'm sorry. -Nobody else was
dying? -Yes, they died. -But there was no cure for the disease? -There
was. -Then I don't understand. - Since no one else believed and taught
about eternal life and eternal death, they thought they had only that
life, and they clung to it with all their strength, even if it cost them
their affection (they did not hug or greet each other, they had no
human contact for days and days); their money (they lost their jobs,
spent all their savings, and still thought themselves lucky to be
prevented from earning their bread); their intelligence (one day the
press said one thing and the next day it contradicted itself, and still
they believed it all); their freedom (they did not leave their house,
did not walk, did not visit their relatives. ...it was a big
concentration camp for voluntary prisoners! They accepted everything,
everything, as long as they could overcome their miserable lives one
more day. They no longer had the slightest idea that He, and only He, is
the one who gives life and ends it. It was like that, as easy as it had
ever been.”
From the book "Letters of the Devil to His Nephew" by C.S. Lewis, the Christian author of “The Chronicles of Narnia”...The book published in 1942.
From the book "Letters of the Devil to His Nephew" by C.S. Lewis, the Christian author of “The Chronicles of Narnia”...The book published in 1942.
26 comments:
"Our puritanical society wants everyone to follow lock-step in preventing or delaying the four last things."
There's nothing "puritanical" about reasonable safety precautions. And no one is trying to prevent or delay the four last things.
Is it puritanical to wear a seat belt when you drive to prevent or delay death in an accident?
Is it puritanical to keep dangerous household chemicals out of the reach of small children to prevent or delay death by poisoning?
Is it puritanical to avoid diving into shallow water to prevent or delay breaking your neck and drowning?
Following health and safety guidelines is a moral good. Ignoring them is a moral evil.
O yes take the precautions but doing so doesn’t mean you won’t be decapitated in a car accident or burned alive. Hiding poisons doesn’t mean a resourceful child won’t find it or concoct his own from an internet resource. And diving into a deep pool doesn’t mean you won’t break your neck on a person you did not see below the surface or drown because of a cramp in your neck.
But, do you preach the 4 last things and that all life is terminal and will face their maker for their personal judgment, and an eternity in heaven or hell.
“O yes take the precautions but doing so doesn’t mean you won’t be decapitated in a car accident or burned alive.”
Good grief, FRAJM! I’ve never known you to be so unthinkingly (?) emotional, and most especially about a subject out of your professional realm. I don’t mean to judge, but what gives?
I’ve always known you to be thinkingly (i.e. being carefully thoughtful) emotional about Liturgy, which is entirely in your training, experience and legitimate purview. God KNOWS I have valued your take on moral and spiritual issues in line with Church teaching! And we are ALL emotional about politics, myself included—believe me, my views on all those things match yours. But I can’t help thinking someone/something has finally put you over the edge about this medical issue?
Gently I would caution: You may need to examine the medical advice you are handing out here; and, yes, it is medical advice. No priest, unless he is also a qualified ID MD, should indulge in that; neither you, nor FRMJK nor, any other. I should not indulge in that despite being a trained, well-seasoned, but out of the loop retired medical professional (with some experience in ID). The jury is still out on nearly every aspect of COVID19 because it is a Novel Virus. Much more will be known for sure in years to come. Meanwhile, we are all just doing the best we can to try to be part of the solution, not the problem—for ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors. And believe me, we are all struggling to see the forest amongst the trees...
I really do hesitate to lecture here, so won’t any further, I promise. God bless.
"But, do you preach the 4 last things and that all life is terminal and will face their maker for their personal judgment, and an eternity in heaven or hell."
Yes.
What I don't do is use the Four Last Things in an attempt to diminish the importance of acting responsibly when driving, when storing household chemicals, when diving, or when going about in public in a pandemic.
No precaution is 100% effective. That's no reason whatsoever not to act cautiously when warranted.
And in all my years I have never met anyone anywhere who is not fully aware that all life is terminal. There's no need to preach that since it is simply not an issue with anyone.
Of course i am not a doctor and priests, no matter how much biology they have had shouldn't be pontificating on COVID-19 other than to say no precautions will guarantee you won't get it. And of course, just because you get it and are listed on the list of those who have it, doesn't mean you will not recover or you will definitely die.
That's the point of listing those who have contracted it by the media as though this is a death sentence and not saying in the next breath that today, too, these many people recovered and are at home living normal productive lives.
The DA in Augusta just contracted the disease, not symptoms yet, but she's on the list. She says she is a germaphobe. She took every precaution from gallons of hand sanitizer to wearing a mask in public at all times. She has no idea how she got it. But it doesn't seem for her that it is a death sentence. But she's on that list and of course the press doesn't tell you it isn't a death sentence.
Now for Fr. MJK and his cavalier statement far more serious and far more damaging than anything I have written, which includes taking precautions with COVID-19, he writes: And in all my years I have never met anyone anywhere who is not fully aware that all life is terminal. "There's no need to preach that since it is simply not an issue with anyone." Oh really and how many of them believe, apart from the intellectual fact of knowing they will die, that they will go before the judgement throne of God and from that judgement either experience an eternity of perpetual bliss in the Beatific Vision, or the darkness of life without God in the eternal damnation of hell.
You haven't preached that, evidently, and that's malpractice for someone who claims biological knowledge but is in fact meant to be a doctor of the soul.
"Of course i am not a doctor and priests, no matter how much biology they have had shouldn't be pontificating on COVID-19..."
He and you should, however, be passing on the best available info from doctors and epidemiologists - they are the high priests of science who do have the right to pontificate at the moment - rather than making silly comments about no precaution being foolproof.
"And of course, just because you get it and are listed on the list of those who have it, doesn't mean you will not recover or you will definitely die."
No kidding. That's why I posted yesterday a FEW of the stories reported in the news of the tens of thousands who recover, even though you were under the misapprehension that these stories aren't reported.
"But she's on that list and of course the press doesn't tell you it isn't a death sentence."
Yes, the press does, regularly. That you choose not to see these reports is your fault, not the media's.
"Oh really"
Yeah, really. I've never met anyone who thinks he/she is not going to die.
"You haven't preached that, evidently,..."
Yeah, I have.
"...and that's malpractice for someone who claims biological knowledge but is in fact meant to be a doctor of the soul."
I do not "claim" biological knowledge. I have it. You don't.
While it may be difficult for you to grasp, it is possible to be knowledgeable in more than one field. The newly elected archabbot at St. Vincent Archabbey has and MBA from Bowling Green State University, a JD from the University of Pennsylvania law school, and an MDiv from St. Vincent Archabbey semianry.
Bee here:
OH! MAN! So the script was written some 80 years ago.
No, we're not dumb, are we? We're intelligent and sophisticated and SCIENTIFIC, and we are surely far beyond those imbecilic ancestors of ours who believed anything they were told....
oh wait....
God bless.
Bee
Bee here:
I like when Fr. Kavanaugh uses his real name on his comments. They're much easier to skip over.
God bless.
Bee
“He and you should, however, be passing on the best available info from doctors and epidemiologists.”
No, FRMJK, I respectfully disagree. This is all so up in the air right now that even the best and wisest among us non-experts make mistakes. Medical info communication should, strictly speaking, be within the purview of Board-certified ID MDs and epidemiologists. We do not need it to be passed on through the filter of our priests, our politicians, Joe on the street, let alone our media. I did try earlier to make that same point with FRAJM. My observation: Whether people follow those directives is moot at best no matter who communicates it. (I’ve heard a few local medical folks describe this phenomenon as “red-neck medicine”, or others as “internet medicine”.) It might fit into your favorite topic of “rugged individualism” I guess... We are probably all guilty.
Medical directives are not part of your job description; your job, through your Ordinary, is to follow the directives from those medical professionals within the physical plant of your “hospital”, the parish church. Whether a priest agrees or disagrees with those directives, it is important that your people understand your role and not be confused by your take on the issues of the day. I do understand that this is a fine-line point. But it is an important distinction, I think. Your job is so very important that it need not cross-over into other areas—you assist God within His Church in saving souls. No one else has the authority to do that. I thank God everyday for faithful priests doing their job.
I would welcome comments by Father Kavanaugh over your too long, too preachy know it all nonsense any day Bee. Father at least addresses the topic at hand. Whether you agree or not doesn't matter. And he doesn't insult people in the process. So skip over his comments if you choose but don't for a second think that your fooling anyone with the holier than thou attitude. There is nothing Holy about you, right down to that phony "God Bless". Narcissism at its best.
Bee, just to let you know,I am not the author of that comment from Anonymous 11:02.
I need to find a moniker other than Anonymous. Sorry all.
Anonymous @6:39
Wow. Seems like someone has finally had enough of the "killer bee" and her dismissive attitude. Especially towards a priest.I will stand by that.
Anon 6:39 - I think that it is very much a part of the job of a pastor to disseminate information that is beneficial to the people in his parish. That may be guidelines from the CDC or other health experts, it may be hurricane preparedness guidelines, it may be info about Blood Drives or book fairs, it might be about proposed zoning changes that will impact a parish or a school or the neighborhood in which they are located.
A pastor's job is not merely to follow medical guidelines for this pandemic, but also to encourage others to do the same. I have done so and will continue to do so.
I am not here merely to "save souls." The collect I used for mass this morning:
"O God, in the covenant of your Christ
you never cease to gather to yourself from all the nations
a people growing together in unity through the spirit;
grant, we pray, that your Church,
faithful to the mission entrusted to her,
may continually go forward with the human family,
and always be the leaven and the soul of human society,
to renew it in Christ and transform it into the family of God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ..."
(Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions, For Holy Church, 1B)
That is one whopper of a paryer, not only in its length, but in its depth. Although it is dense and a bit wordy - I don't know how it could be edited without losing substantial meaning - it is a good blueprint for the work of the Church and, importantly, the work of pastors.
To "be the leaven and the soul of human society" speaks to how we live in this world, how we work for justice and do mercy in this world, how we respond to dangerous pandemics and to natural disasters in this world. These are but a few of the "issues of the day" that a pastor should speak to because these are the issues where Divine grace is needed to lead and guide us. Our human society, on this side of the tombstone, desperately needs transformation in Christ to be the human family God desires.
There is a difference between knowing something, like you're going to die eventually, and knowing it in the depths of your being. Robert Heinlein, a titan of science fiction, introduced the word grok in his classic Stranger in a Strange Land to capture this concept of deep, internalized knowledge.
When I was younger, I knew a lot of things intellectually, including the fact that life is fatal. Now, at 72, I grok this in a way that my younger self didn't, probably as a result of seeing so many of my friends and family members of my age die in the past couple of years. This has had a profound effects on me, some negative, but mostly positive (like my increased and focused devotional life).
So how does this relate to COVID? Well, I am more that willing to put up with some constraints, such as social distancing and mask wearing indoors, in the name of protecting myself, my wife, my children and grandchildren, and other friends and family. And while I certainly would like to avoid death in the immediate future, I also know that I may contract COVID whatever I do, and that, at my age, it's more likely to be fatal. Yet I do not want to cower in a corner, avoiding all the wonderful things this life has to offer, in some vain expectation of eking out a tad more time here before I enter into eternal life.
So it's a balancing act, as most things in life are. The key is to find the right balance, and neither blasé indifference to the pandemic nor panic driven overreaction provide that balance.
Well said to both Father Kavanaugh and Mikel!
From the reading this morning:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
—Matthew 7:21
It’s about souls, not biology.
And caring for "souls" involves caring for the " entire" person including their physical well being.
"...but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Doing the will of the Father who is in heaven is about what we do on this side of the tombstone.
What we "do" involves, yes, biology, but also ecology, economics, education, ecumenism, epidemiology, banking, boating, baking, painting, parenting, performing, purchasing, etc.
It is in all of these, and many, many more, areas that we are called to be holy, to act in a manner that reflects our Christian bearing and our hope for salvation in the life to come.
An integrated spirituality is built on two things. The first is the mystery of the Incarnation. That Christ took on human flesh gives a value and an importance to our existence in the flesh, to what we do in the flech, that it could not have had otherwise. The second foundational element is the dictum "Grace Builds On Nature," or as Thomas Aquinas put is, "Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it." (Summa Theologiae (ST), I, I, 8 ad 2)
“Oh, all this thinking...it’s very overrated.”
—the Dowager, played by Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey, S5, E6)
The human mind may perceive truth only through thinking, as is clear from Augustine.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theological 5 Volumes
"The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It's not that there's something new in our way of thinking - it's that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before."
Carl Sagan
Mikel: “Neither blasé indifference to the pandemic nor panic driven overreaction provide [the right] balance.”
“Quite so!
Hey, ho, hey ho
Back to Aristotle we go.”
"The times are never so bad that a good man cannot live in them"
Saint Thomas More
"The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.
T.S. Eliot
Father is correct. We can disagree as to praxis as regards this particular corona virus. Ultimately, whether we agree or disagree, all of us will face Our Lord for judgement. Whether an individual covers their face or not, all will come to His throne. While we make our way through this life, Father's goal is to try to save souls. Sometimes, it's easy to focus on the immanent and forget the transcendent. I know I've been guilty of that. That was a good quote from Mr. Lewis. Thanks Father.
C.S Lewis didn't write this, it is fake.
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