The AX: The Annunciation

The AX: Quarantine Edition

Faith in a Pandemic

I had a sore throat last week. I felt it coming on the weekend before, but it came and went the same night. By Tuesday it had returned with a vengeance and by Wednesday I was getting a bit preoccupied, to put it mildly. Paranoid might be a more apt description of my emotional state. I saw my regular doctor. All she could tell me was that it wasn't strep throat. Since I didn't have other symptoms of Covid 19, like shortness of breath or fever, she sent me home with the usual advise: gargle with warm salt water to relieve the throat, wash hands, avoid crowds, drink fluids and get rest. 

I was worried because I know my body, and I know how colds and minor ailments like that usually develop. A sore throat like that one usually passes in 48 hours. It may also be the precursor to a cold, that either moves up into my sinuses or goes down into my chest, but this was doing neither. It was just lingering. Anyway, its passed now, and I'm feeling a lot less anxious. 

I'm not in the active ministry right now. I'm back to being a full time student. I didn't have to struggle over closing the parish or canceling Masses. I've seen the debates going back and forth, mainly on social media, over the wisdom of canceling public liturgies. The motivation for the restrictions is to cooperate with civil authorities in limiting large crowds where the virus may be easily spread. The opposite view is that the people need the grace of the sacraments even more during a crisis like this. If we believe that the Mass offers graces the world needs, why deny the people this essential spiritual aide? 

While I'm not indifferent, I still haven't formed an opinion. I see both sides. And there are two sides here, or maybe even three. There are those who say that they are willing to risk infection because participating in the Eucharist is so important to them. On the other hand there are those who ask, while I may be willing to risk infection, do I risk being a carrier who could potentially infect others, even unknowingly? There is a third group who would argue that if you have faith then nothing bad will happen to you. I respectfully reject that position, and will get into why below. Pastors have to weigh both the spiritual and temporal good of their people. I remember a pastor gently admonishing an elderly parishioner who came to a daily Mass on an extremely cold day, with he sidewalks covered with ice. She was not the most robust person, to put it mildly. I can admire her faith, and her hunger for the Eucharist, but can you blame the pastor for being concerned for the woman's physical well being?

My religious community celebrates daily Eucharist at our high school, so students and teachers can participate as well. I made a conscious decision not to go over. During an ordinary cold and flu season I probably would have. But since the school was in a state of heightened awareness, debating whether to stay open or not, and I didn't know exactly what was ailing me, I stayed home. I felt the responsibility not to spread whatever it was that had made me sick to others. I missed participating in the Eucharist. I prayed the Rosary and the Office, but they are no substitutes for the Bread of Life. Starting today the school is closed for two weeks, so we are celebrating the Eucharist at home now. I'm grateful that I can once again participate in the Mass. I understand how those being denied the sacrament feel right now. 

Some diocese have closed parishes, others have dispensed the faithful from the Sunday obligation. The bishops who went for the full closure are coming under fire from some quarters for making this call. I've seen people call them cowards and faithless for doing this. They'll speak of saints who served plague victims and were protected from infection. In the Salesian Family we have the case of young people form Don Bosco's Oratory who accompanied him in assisting victims of a cholera outbreak in Turin in 1854. The epidemic took many lives, but none of Don Bosco's volunteers were infected.  

There are many such stories of miraculous protection granted to those assisting the sick and endangered during an epidemic. At the same time it needs to be remembered that St. Damien dedicated his life to easing the suffering of lepers. He eventually contracted the illness and died from it. St. Aloysius Gonzaga died of complications from the plague he contracted while working at a Roman hospital during an outbreak in that city. My point is that it isn't for us to presume God's will for us. Because someone dies in an epidemic, or in some other tragedy, doesn't mean that they were somehow out of favor with God or lacked faith. Just because we say that we have faith doesn't mean that God will necessarily put a bubble of protection around us. Faith doesn't mean that we believe God will automatically protect us from physical harm in times of danger. It means that we understand the risks but go out anyway because we believe sharing Christ with others is so important. We fear not that which can harm the body, but can not destroy the soul.

As I mentioned above, the responsibility runs both ways. We may not worry about getting infected, but we need to understand the responsibility to not infect others. This illness is difficult because a person might be infected and contagious for at least two weeks before they even show symptoms themselves. We could be infecting each other and not even know it (this is where the paranoia kicks in). So let's be charitable in judging intentions, just in our decisions to stay home or go out, as well as being sensible all around. 

If I'm pressed to offer an opinion, I would have gone with dispensing from the obligation to attend Mass, but still offered public liturgies. Again, I'm not criticizing the bishops who decided to opt for the full shutdown. These are tough decisions, and only time will tell who was right and who was wrong. My preferred solution puts the pressure on the individual to judge if going out is the right thing to do or not. Catholics do need to be better educated on when missing Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day does not incur sin. I offer a post from Fr. Dwight Longenecker that does a good job of it. It's a couple of years old, so isn't specific to this situation, but is still useful. 

Other than that, stay close to the Lord in the ways that you can. Make whatever inconveniences, large or small a part of your Lenten sacrifices. Let's lookout for one another and pray for one another. 

Dr. Brant Pitre: Understand the Sunday Mass Readings during Lent

Dr. Pitre has a Ph.D in New Testament and ancient Judaism from the University of Notre Dame, has been a professor at the major seminary in New Orleans and is currently a distinguished research professor at the Augustine Institute in Colorado. He's a solid scholar who is able to make the scholarship accessible to a wider audience. Here he gives a brief video on how the Mass readings for Lent are organized.  

Here's a link to his Amazon page.