Lord, Give Us Discerning Minds

Who am I to correct a moral theologian?  So I'm offering a differing opinion, not a correction, to this article by Father Ezra Sullivan, op, on the morality of vaccine mandates.  

I can see just by googling the morality of the COVID vaccine that there are differing opinions.  The USCCB tackles the question of morality in vaccines,  in its committees on doctrine and pro-life activities: 

 At present, there is no available alternative vaccine that has absolutely no connection to abortion. Second, the risk to public health is very serious, as evidenced by the millions of infections worldwide and hundreds of thousands of deaths in the United States of America alone. Third, in many cases the most important effect of vaccination may not be the protection it offers to the person who receives the vaccination, who may be of relatively robust health and unlikely to be seriously affected by the disease. Rather, the more important effect may be the protection it offers to those who are much more likely to be seriously stricken by the disease if they were to contract it through exposure to those infected. 

The spiritual advisor to my fraternity, Father Nicanor Austriaco, op, concurs with the USCCB regarding vaccination against COVID.  Getting vaccinated is not intrinsically evil.  He has been vaccinated.  Pope Francis has been vaccinated and has urged the faithful to do likewise.

As a simple, old woman, I'll follow the advice of the Vicar of Christ.

I just came across this old post from Father Nicanor Austriaco, op.  It's at least a year old.  He's answering the question of why is God sending this COVID pandemic. It still gives me pause for contemplation.

There are numerous stories in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that reveal that there is theological meaning behind plagues and pestilence and pandemic.

There are three possibilities. The pandemic could be a divine blessing, a divine punishment, or a divine test.

I think that very few people today would see this viral pandemic as a blessing. How could the exponential increases in global deaths and illness be a blessing? How could the overflowing hospitals and exhausted and broken health care professionals be a blessing? How could the economic devastation experienced by all, especially by the poor and the vulnerable and the marginalized, be a blessing?

It is difficult to see all of this as a blessing. And yet, it would not surprise me if God will reveal the blessings that He can realize in and through the devastating tragedy of human suffering and death. In His time.

Could this pandemic be a punishment? There are many in the West who recoil from such a suggestion. However, both Testaments clearly indicate that God our Father can lovingly chastise His sons and daughters through plague and pestilence.

More recently, the Mother of God spoke about a divine chastisement when she appeared at Fatima, Portugal, just over a century ago. So it is not unreasonable to understand the pandemic in this way.

Why would God chastise His people? He does this to correct us so that we may flourish more fully and more joyfully and move lovingly. It is a sign of a Father’s love.

Finally, I think that it is reasonable to see this pandemic as also a test. Every cross is a test. It is a call to fidelity. It is a call to love more, especially to love God and neighbor more, even when it is difficult and stressful and anxiety-ridden.

So how should we respond to this pandemic when we realize that it is both punishment and test, with the hope that we may one day see it as a blessing?

The Lenten answer is a tried and true approach: Prayer, Penance, and Almsgiving. We should take the time in our quarantines and our lockdowns to pray a little more. Praying with Christ.

We should embrace our quarantines and our lockdowns and the little and not so little pains that come with them as a penance. Redemptive in Christ.

And we should seek out small and not so small ways to serve those around us who may be struggling because they see no more meaning in a time of pandemic. Loving like Christ.

Video Experiment

Hey Hey Hey!  I did it!  I figured out how to post a video!

It helps if it's not private.  I didn't know there was such a thing.  Anyway, I'll be able to post more now.  What you're seeing is a talk on my religious family.  One of the participants is my chapter's spiritual promoter, Fr. Nic Austriaco, O.P.  He is with Fr. Benedict Croell, O.P.  They are being interviewed by Fr. Mitch Packwa.

At the Hour of Death

Father Nick had a question and answer session after Mass. One of his explanations really hit home with me. He was talking about death, and how Satan waits to attack you then--when you are at your physical weakest. "Wait that happened to me!" See my poem on Cronkhite Canada Syndrome.

Fr. Nic continued: "That's why it's so important for the Salve Squad to come in. The Salve Squad consists of my Dominican brothers and sisters being with you, when you are close to death. They pray with you and sing the Salve Regina."

Immediately I thought of the Hail Mary. At the end, don't we pray "...and at the hour of our death?"

There's also the Divine Mercy Chaplet that should be prayed when one is dying. Sister Faustina's diary says, "At the hour of their death, I defend every soul that will say this chaplet as I do My own glory (...). When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God's anger is placated and his unfathomable mercy envelops the soul" (Diary, 811).

Even in wikipoedia I learned: In Roman Catholic teachings, Saint Michael is one of the angels who are assumed present at the hour of a person's death. In his role as the patron of holy souls, Michael reaches to souls near death and saves them, hence frustrating Satan. Traditionally, he is charged to assist the dying and accompany their souls to their private judgment, bring them to purgatory and afterwards, present them to God at their entrance to heaven.

Even when I was wasting away, I had enough sense to ask for Saint Michael's help. I didn't have the strength of any sort of mental acuity to pray the Rosary or remember anything else. But I remembered Michael the Archangel, in my "valley of tears."

When my death comes around, I pray that I have my family around, and that we are all praying a Rosary, so Mary will guide me home. Just imagine, our souls being united in prayer. As St. Catherine of Siena said, "the way to heaven is heaven..."

Epiphany

Image via Wikipedia

Summa Theologia, I-II, 40, 4 and II-II, 17, 1 and II-II, 17 2 were our topics in Chapter, today.  My "cloistered brothers," with the help of Fr.Nic and Dr. Holly Coolman, from Providence College, discussed Hope and Despair.  These subjects are treated a little differently by Thomas Aquinas, than the current definitions of hope and despair.

Despair is not really just the opposite of Hope.  It's more of seeing something as not a good thing.  It's more despair, even depression, and sin.

Hope, according to AQ is wanting to attain something.  This something has to be attainable.  I can't hope to be young; that's impossible.  Hope is also wanting something good.  In this way, Hope is a virtue.

It was in discussing Article 2. "Whether eternal happiness is the proper object of hope?", that I had my epiphany.    You see I never understood 1 Corinthians 13: 13.  Faith, Hope, and Love, and the greatest of these is Love.  This isn't true, if you are talking spiritually. Spiritually would be agape love.  It is necessary to have Faith to have agape love.  So doesn't it make sense, that Faith would be the greater virtue?

Faith to AQ means "see."  Ah!  I see it therefore I believe.  I see God; therefore I believe.  I see what you are saying; therefore I believe.  Hope is wishing for an attainable good.  Hope would be wishing to go to heaven.

The epiphany comes in heaven.  In heaven, I see (faith) God.  I have attained the good (hope.)  What's left?  God Himself (Who is Love.)  

The greatest virtue is Love when you are talking about "presence."  

Related articles

• Thomas Aquinas on Theological Virtues: Summa Theologica (theophilogue.wordpress.com)

Glory to God

Fr. Nic today went over the changes in the parts of the people in the Order of Mass in the Roman Missal, Third Edition.  I like the changes to the Gloria in particular.  They seem more appropriate to giving glory to God.  In fact, the part "We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory, Lord God, Heavenly King, O God, almighty Father."  reminds me of the way the charismatic Catholics pray.  I can just picture them praying, standing up with arms raised, praying these words and elevating the prayer to "speaking in tongues."

Doesn't "...on earth peace to people of good will." remind you of the angels heralding Jesus' birth?

And "Only Begotten Son,...Son of the Father..."  show the relationship between Father and Son more closely?

And "with the Holy Spirit," which isn't a change, but adds a connection to our Trinitarian God that just nails it for me.

Change is good.

Related articles

• New "Gloria" for New Roman Missal (patheos.com)

Corpus Christi

I went to two Masses today. The first one was in my parish, where I was assigned to read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Drama Queen that I am, I relished putting my heart where my mouth was, and proclaiming This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Besides being food for the soul, this reading was food for my mind. I find it amazing that for over 2000 years this memorial has been continued. That today, I am in communion with the early Christians. We carry on. This Eucharist unites us into the Communion of Saints. We are one catholic family: Mary, apostles, saints, everyone, and me. United through God because once we partake of His Body and Blood, we are united in Him. We become part of His divine life. It's wicked awesome, when you think about it.

Then in Chapter, Father Nic celebrated Mass for my "cloistered brothers." Again I heard 1 Corinthians 23-26. But this time, Father Nic emphasized the reason we believe that God is truly present in the Bread and Wine. And although Father Nic didn't reveal anything new; it wasn't anything I didn't know; it wasn't anything a child making their First Communion couldn't have told you; yet it reached my heart. Before I knew it in my head. However, this time my cloistered brothers reached my heart.

The reason we Catholics believe that the Bread and Wine on the altar is God, is because Jesus told us. God can not lie.

My cloistered brothers understood it in simple terms. They believe because Jesus told them too.  Their faith reached into the heart of this Faith.  God bless them.

Ave, verum corpus
natum de Maria Virgine,
Vere passum immolatum
in Cruce pro homine,
Cujus latus perforatum
unda* fluxit (et)* sanguine,
Esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

Hail,true body
born of the Virgin Mary,
Who truly suffered, sacrificed
on the Cross for man,
Whose pierced side overflowed
with water* and blood,
Be for us a foretaste**
In the test of death.

Fr. Nic

Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P. came to give a lesson to our chapter, today. We had read Dignitas Personae in preparation for his visit, because that's what he talked about. My cloistered brothers asked the real world questions and Fr. Nic didn't flinch. He answered them head on.

If embryonic stem cell research will help cure illness, why does the Church forbid it?
Because you can't destroy life to save life. All life is sacred.

Why is eugenics wrong?
Because it's playing God. Who's going to decide what is desirable?

Why in some fertility treatments frown upon?
Because they aren't using the methods God created man and woman for. Actions which assist the conjugal act are allowed, but not those that replace it.

Who does a baby belong to if a woman rents a womb to carry her baby, another woman donates her eggs, a man donates his sperm, and another woman carries the baby in her womb?
Good question. That's a problem.

What about cloning perfect people?
Cloning is manipulation to make a genetic copy and is an offense to the dignity to the cloned.

This was not a negative session. Fr. Nic explained that the Church's teaching is a beautiful explanation on the dignity and inalienable value of every single and unique human being. Learning about these issues are an important part of understanding of what we are called to preach. Now further study into this document and Donum Vitae will enable us to explain these important issues.

Day With Mary

What a busy day! This morning, a couple of friends and myself went down to the Priory at Providence College for A Day with Mary. Two Dominican Laity Groups sponsored the event. We prayed, sang, had a talk by Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P.. He was very good. He explained Marian Dogma by going through the Hail Mary. He also touched on abortion and euthanasia--well he is an ethicist/biologist. He made the picture whole.
Naturally we prayed the Rosary. Father celebrated Mass and then we ate lunch there. It was a very good morning.
Later, I Lectored at the 7:00 PM Mass. After Mass I went over to the Parish Appreciation Night. We ate and socialized. Now I'm exhausted.