Monday, May 18, 2020

Random Observations

- Seems like only yesterday our Elders and Betters were telling us we can’t let terrorists randomly attacking crowds on the streets dictate how we live our lives.  Some of our Elders and Betters, like say the Mayor of London, even told us terrorist attacks were the New Normal and we needed to get used to them and reconcile ourselves to them.  Now our Elders and Betters are telling us we need to completely cancel our lives, shun all social contact, even among family members, and shut down our economy, because of a virus that has had a very low fatality rate.  Ever stopped to wonder why the change of tune?

- The same people who are listening to a computer geek to find out how to deal with a disease are telling the rest of us that because we are not experts in diseases, we are too ignorant to decide when it’s best for us to start going about our daily business again.

- Ever notice that villains in literature are often physically ugly or disfigured, as an outward expression of their inward evilness? Ever notice the physical ugliness of real-life characters like George Soros?  Harvey Weinstein?  Hillary Clinton?  Bill and Melinda Gates?  Theodore McCarrick?  By any chance, is there a message in this?

- This massive quarantine, which still continues in some states and which in some places imposes restrictions that only apply to religious observance, is clearly shaping up to be an attack on religion, and especially on the Catholic Church.  Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that so many of our bishops have abandoned us to tyrannical mayors and governors, whom they seem overly anxious to please.  Except for St. John, the entire college of bishops, hand-picked by Jesus Christ Himself, deserted Him during His Passion.  One handed Him over to His enemies.  His chosen Vicar on Earth denied Him three times.  The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ, and what happened to the Head is going to happen to the Body.

- The whole concept of governments deciding which businesses and services are “essential” and which are “non-essential” is positively Orwellian.  All legitimate enterprises are essential, especially to the people who depend on them for their livelihood.

- Do our Elders and Betters who are urging us to keep our nasty, filthy, contagious selves locked away at home for the benefit of the vulnerable really care about the vulnerable?  Are these not the same people who favor the extermination of the most vulnerable among us, namely, the elderly and the unborn?  One suspects that, by “the vulnerable,” they really mean themselves, but are unwilling to admit it.  This is understandable, since persons who are atheists and aggressive secularists, and are unwilling to repent, certainly have very good reason to dread death.

- When Catholics all over the world are deprived of the Sacraments — and this at Easter, the holiest time on the liturgical calendar — this qualifies as a sign, and apocalyptic.  When we respond by doubling down on irreverent practices with the Eucharist, that shows we are not paying attention, and we are asking for even worse things to follow.

- Why are we being asked to adopt this obsessive-compulsive, Howard-Hughes-like, effeminate phobia of microbes?  Is there the slightest possibility that the purpose of this drive to make us shun our fellow man as a source of contagion is to purge charity from the face of the earth and leave us with nothing to mediate between us and power?  And why are so many people, including members of the Catholic hierarchy, on board with this agenda?  Answer: because without the Catholic faith, which gives us eyes to see the world in the light of the supernatural, we are sitting ducks.  Without a supernatural view, we are, to say the least, missing an entire data set that is relevant to deciding how to proceed.  Judging by their actions, we have a lot of Catholics, including priests and bishops, who lack supernatural faith.  And sorry, but this also goes for non-Catholics who call themselves Christians.  If you are Orthodox, you suffer the disabilities that go with not being in union with Christ’s Vicar on Earth.  If your religion derives from the Reformation, you also suffer those disabilities, plus you don’t have the Sacraments and you believe that you can dictate the terms upon which you will accept God’s mercy.  And you are all the more vulnerable for thinking you’re not vulnerable.

- Two literary references spring to mind when I contemplate this “pandemic.”  One is the Solarians in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.  The Solarians were human colonists on another planet who so dreaded social contact that they filled their world with robots to serve their needs, and refused to interact with each other except by television.  Eventually, in their radical narcissism and hatred for each other, they came up with a way to perpetuate the race without copulating by mutilating themselves into androgynous, asexual creatures.  The other reference is H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.  Do you know what it is that eventually conquers the Martian invaders?  Germs.  Make of all this what you will.

- I cannot take credit for the following observation, but it is definitely worth passing along: the wrath of God is actually the love of God, as experienced by those who resist it.

- There are a couple of lines in Scripture that are much in my mind at the moment, and that we should think about in these troubled times.  They are both from the Gospel of Luke, in the passage that has become known as the Magnificat, which the Church prays every evening at Vespers.  Luke 1:50:
And His mercy is from generation unto generation, to them that fear Him.
So there is no generation that is excluded from God’s mercy, even generations that are subjected to chastisement, as ours is, provided we fear Him.  Fear of the Lord is one of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  And Luke 1:51-52:
He hath shewed might in His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.  He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
Right now, we lie prostrate with the hob-nailed boots of the proud and the mighty upon our necks.  Right now the totalitarians and secularists appear to be in charge all over the world and within the Church, and humanly speaking, there is nothing we can do about it.  But ultimately, God is in charge. What He has done before, He will do again.

We have His promise.

2 comments:

  1. Absolutely excellent, Anita.

    There is no doubt in my mind that many, many "Catholics" will not be returning to Mass when this nonsense is over. I'm always saying "follow the money." What are all those unfaithful bishops and priests going to do when the collection plates are empty from lack of people?

    I just started re-reading Dark Agenda:The War to Destroy Christian America by David Horowitz. It's excellent. His book Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey is also excellent.

    Now to figure out the rest of my day - something that is always handled first thing in the morning after journaling and prayer. My dentist appointment for 9am was screwed up after being moved once already so it's now next week. So here I sit, showered, dressed, make up and hair done, and no where to go. Arrrrrgh! I guess I could slither over to Coeur d'Alene and hit up TJ Maxx or some other useless diversion. First world problems to be sure!

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  2. Thanks Adrienne! Thank God when the problem is only first-world!

    I have been giving thought to the question of money to bishops. I always earmark my parish donations for particular purposes, because I know there are assessments that go to to the USCCB, and I do not want a dime to go to them. This is an organization with no canonical authority, where bishops convene in four-star hotels, behind a phalanx of armed security, to advocate gun control. But then I ask myself: how much do the bishops really miss my contributions, when there are plenty of liberal big-money donors they can turn to, including (at least under some administrations) the government? It’s a depressing thought, and proves that the solution to these problems is out of our hands.

    On a lighter note, just as you are getting on with your day, I am going in this afternoon for my first haircut since February!!! Yaaaayyyy!!!!!

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