Suffering in these times
+St. David+
Sorry about my long absence from this blog. Just know that when I don’t post weekly, family obligations have intervened. I will try to post shorter pieces more frequently when I am able.
I am REALLY tired of all the CCP virus nonsense we keep being fed, including the supposed urgency of receiving a vaccine. I have never been a fan of vaccines from way back, when I received them as a child. They always made me ill and as an adult I stopped receiving them. My kids also would later show adverse reactions. Familial? Could be, but who will do the research to find out? They would rather waste our tax dollars studying how fast catsup drips.
Heard some interesting things on the virus this week. One, a pediatrician commented on Fox News that he hasn’t seen any flu cases at all this year, something he says he finds quite odd. Could it be that the CCP virus was our regular seasonal flu, just a slightly more deadly version? I say slightly because no one is able to positively document just how many people have died from this virus, and we see deaths from the flu every year among the elderly and immuno-compromised. CCP deaths are a mixed bag — reports are that hospitals are paid tax dollars for each death. Where money is concerned, are we going to trust human beings prone to error and often fraud — especially seeing that hospitals are struggling to survive — to accurately report these deaths? You can if you like, but please forgive me if I bow out.
The second curious fact, also reported on Fox News, is that even after grandparents and grandchildren both are vaccinated for the virus, the “experts” still advise them not to mix socially. So why bother with a vaccine at all? Methinks this is not about running any risk of infection, at least not of the medical kind. The “infection” they are worried about is one of ideas — grams and gramps might impart some religious or politically conservative wisdom on the state of affairs today these kiddos just might take to heart. This is social engineering at its most insidious.
Double masks, topped off in some cases by a face shield, when this epidemic is waning anyway? Only a cognitively impaired head of state would be foolish enough to promote and model this behavior. Monkey see, monkey do, and what does that say about you?
Saw an alarming comment about the origins of social distancing. One person observed that in Satanic rituals, satanists wear masks and stand about six feet apart. This is the championing of the power and “godliness” of each individual apart from any group. It is a denial of the Mystical Body in favor of individualism. Sad thing is, the person making this comment was Protestant, and their idea of Christ’s Mystical Body encompasses all religions, the “invisible Church” heresy condemned by Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis Christi. The Body of Christ was divided long ago during the Protestant Reformation, and the dire consequences of this division are Liberalism and ultimately Progressivism. The history of this division and its culmination today is presented in the e-book Liberalism’s Shameful Legacy, available on this site.
Catholics are still struggling with the moral dilemma receiving any of the available vaccines entails — we said previously that some could receive it if they were convinced there are no risks that violate morals. However, it appears there are moral questions about all of the vaccines, so people had better be praying and doing their homework. DNA altering material, which reportedly has been used in the manufacture of nearly all the vaccines, is a major concern. When physical or spiritual harm could result, no one is bound to receive them. Here the old, tested rule holds: When in doubt, don’t.
I have often thought, since all this virus business began last year, how totally unChristian the entire approach to disease has become. When the Novus Ordo began de-emphasizing Christ’s Passion and death on the Cross, and overemphasizing his triumph over death with His Resurrection, suffering of any kind lost its value for Novus Ordo attendees. Of course this was entirely bound up in the destruction of the Latin Mass, the very re-enactment of the Passion, and the institution of the Novus Ordo Missae. It is pathetic to see the apprehension in the faces of young Novus Ordo adherents when devotion to the Passion of Christ is mentioned; they consider it macabre and psychologically unhealthy. And yet it is the greatest and most consoling devotion one could ever practice. They must not believe the Scriptures then, when Christ tells us that if we truly wish to follow Him, we must suffer as He suffered. In fact it is precisely those of us suffering in these times who must fill up what is wanting to His Passion.
In her vision of the Trinity at Tuy, Spain in 1929, when Our Lady came to ask for the Consecration of Russia, Lucia dos Santos stated that she was given the grace to understand the Trinity in a supernatural way. This vision, as represented by artists, disassociates the Holy Ghost from Our Lady in any way save that which is taught by the Church. The picture shows God the Father hovering over the head of His Son’s cross, with the Holy Ghost as a Dove emanating rays from the Father’s chest which descend on Christ’s head. From Our Lord’s side issues the Sacred Blood and the water which symbolizes His union with the Mystical Body, the Church. Beneath this stream reposes the Host, suspended above a Chalice, into which the Sacred stream flows.
Under the Chalice stands the Sorrowful Mother, her rosary in her hand. This is much like the vision of the Sacred Species the children saw when the Angel first appeared to them, and the significance is unmistakable. Again the Host and Chalice are suspended in mid-air, but in the later vision of Lucia dos Santos, Our Lady sadly stands beneath the suspended Body and Blood of her Son, as though extending the rosary to her children, while pointing to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. This positioning and gesture are but further proof that the Holy Sacrifice will be suspended and the faithful will only have recourse to the rosary and the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. They must offer themselves as the sacrifice, something Fr. Demaris reminds us we must do in his little treatise written in the 1790s:
“The Holy Eucharist had for you many joys and advantages when you were able to participate in this Sacrament of love, but now you are deprived of it for being defenders of truth and justice. Your advantages are the same, for who would have dared approach this fearsome table if Jesus Christ had not given us a precept, and if the Church, which desires that we fortify ourselves with this Bread of Life, had not invited us to eat It by the voice of its ministers, who reclothed us with a nuptial dress. All was obedience, but if we compare obedience by that which we are deprived of with that which led us there, it will be easy to judge the merit.
“Abraham obeyed in immolating his son, and in not immolating him, but his obedience was greater when he took the sword in his hand than when he returned it to its scabbard. We are obedient in going to Communion, but in holding ourselves from the sacrifice we are immolating ourselves. Quenched of the thirst of justice and depriving ourselves of the Blood of the Lamb which alone can slake it, we sacrifice our own life as much as it is in us to do. The sacrifice of Abraham was for an instant, an angel stopped the knife; ours is daily, every time that we adore with submission the Hand of God that drives us away from His altars, and this sacrifice is voluntary. It is to be advantageously deprived of the Eucharist, to raise the standard of the Cross for the cause of Christ and the glory of His Church.
“Observe, my children, that Jesus, after having given His Body, found no difficulty in dying for us. There is the action of a Christian in the persecutions, the Cross follows on from the Eucharist. Let not the love of the Eucharist drive us away from the Cross. It is to arise and make glorious advance in the grace of the Gospel, to go out from the Cenacle, to go to Calvary. Yes, I have no fear in saying it. When the storm of the malice of men roars against truth and justice, it is more advantageous to the Faithful to suffer for Christ than to participate in His Body by Communion. I seem to hear the Savior saying to us: “Do not be afraid to be separated from My table for the confession of My Name: it is a grace I give you, which is very rare. Repair by this humiliating deprivation that glorifies Me, all the Communions which dishonor me.”
Even those styling themselves Christians these days are anxious to avoid any suffering whatsoever, and generally welcome a vaccine if it would relieve them of the possibility of what for most amounts to an unpleasant respiratory illness. Primarily, it is the aged and already medically vulnerable who experience complications, even death. But then eventually, death comes for us all. Until vaccines became commonplace, mankind suffered through the various maladies that afflicted those on earth, and Catholics offered those sufferings to God in expiation for their sins. Cures were not expected for things on a regular basis. Minor illnesses were considered a part of life. Today, man must be spared everything, even the discomfort of a hangnail. It is as though these so-called Christians are saying that being gods themselves, they are better than that — greater than Christ Himself. For they should not have to suffer anythingin order to gain heaven, when Christ gave His very life to open Heaven to souls. This includes foregoing Mass and Sacraments when, as Fr. Demaris says, they dishonor Our Lord.
This rejection of all suffering for Christ’s sake contradicts everything we read in Holy Scripture, which teaches that Our Lord:
— Suffered excruciating pains on the Cross to open the Gates of Heaven.
— Warned us we would suffer persecution if we followed Him
— Encouraged us to suffer with Him
— Promised us that those who suffered persecution for justice’s sake would enter Heaven.
During this Lenten season, those piously commemorating Christ’s Passion and death who truly love God must not hesitate to offer up all their worries and concerns to make reparation to Our Lord. This includes the “safety” of vaccines, the danger of contracting the virus itself, the destruction of this country and the inability of receiving the Sacraments and sacramentals. By embracing, rather than shunning, all those little everyday grievances and annoyances we can make some small reparation for the many wounds suffered by Jesus today from those savagely attacking Him. If we cannot even watch one hour with Him, then who?