Corona Bunker Blues

And David arose in the morning, and the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet and the seer of David, saying: Go, and say to David: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee thy choice of three things, choose one of them which thou wilt, that I may do it to thee. And when Gad was come to David, he told him, saying: Either seven years of famine shall come to thee in thy land: or thou shalt flee three months before thy adversaries, and they shall pursue thee: or for three days there shall be a pestilence in thy land. Now therefore deliberate, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said to Gad: I am in a great strait: but it is better that I should fall into the hands of the Lord (for his mercies are many) than into the hands of men. And the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, from the morning unto the time appointed, and there died of the people from Dan to Bersabee seventy thousand men.

And when the angel of the Lord had stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord had pity on the affliction, and said to the angel that slew the people: It is enough: now hold thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshingfloor of Areuna the Jebusite.  And David said to the Lord, when he saw the angel striking the people: It is I; I am he that have sinned, I have done wickedly: these that are the sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I beseech thee, be turned against me, and against my father's house. And Gad came to David that day, and said: Go up, and build an altar to the Lord in the threshingfloor of Areuna the Jebusite. And David went up according to the word of Gad which the Lord had commanded him. And Areuna looked, and saw the king and his servants coming towards him:

An going out he worshipped the king, bowing with his face to the earth, and said: Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? Arid David said to him: To buy the threshingfloor of thee, and build an altar to the Lord, that the plague, which rageth among the people, may cease. And Areuna said to David: Let my lord the king take, and offer, as it seemeth good to him: thou hast here oxen for a holocaust, and the wain, and the yokes of the oxen for wood. [23] All these things Areuna as a king gave to the king: and Areuna said to the king: The Lord thy God receive thy vow. And the king answered him, and said: Nay, but I will buy it of thee at a price, and I will not offer to the Lord my God holocausts free cost. So David bought the floor, and the oxen, for fifty sicles of silver: And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered holocausts and peace offerings: and the Lord became merciful to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

2 SAMUEL 24:11-25 DOUAY-RHEIMS

When I first heard about the Chinese virus back in February, I knew it was going to be a big deal, and I recalled this passage from 2 Samuel concerning the chastisement the Lord put upon King David. This chastisement was a punishment upon David for taking a census in the land. Why would this anger the Lord? The census was a king’s way of assessing what resources he had on hand for two main things. The first is taxation, and the second is warfare. Both things make people servants to the king instead of the king being the servant of the people. For David, the sin was to place his trust in his resources instead of in the Lord. David knew he messed up, but the Lord was going to teach David a lesson that he would not forget. He gave David three options--famine, war, or disease. David chose disease.

Those three options represent the three main ways that God chastises the people. Famine and economic breakdown is one way. Wars are the other. Then, there is disease. David chose the disease because it was the most benign punishment he could endure.

All three of these calamities befell the world in the twentieth century. Two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Spanish flu were all divine chastisements upon people. These punishments are listed in the Apocalypse of Saint John. Our Lady warned us about them at Fatima. All of these punishments are executed in response to the one sin that seems to provoke the Lord above all others. This is the sin of hubris.

Hubris is what caused the Devil to be cast from Heaven. Hubris is what caused Adam and Eve to listen to the serpent when he told them they could become like gods. Hubris is what caused the prediluvian civilization to turn from God in a serious way that God literally destroyed the entire world with a flood. Hubris laid the stones of the Tower of Babel. And there was the hubris of David who went from being a lowly shepherd to a fugitive in fear for his life to becoming a great king. That census was the victory lap for David as he certainly had greater ambitions to fulfill. God thought otherwise.

The purpose of chastisement is humiliation. God resists the proud but bestows grace upon the humble. If we become proud and conceited, God will humble us. If we remain humble, God will do great things through us. It’s not rocket science. If you want things to go well for you, humble yourself and learn to rely upon the Lord.

This story of David is similar to what happened during the time of Pope Saint Gregory the Great:

The plague was still ravaging Rome, and Gregory ordered the procession to continue to make the circuit of the city, the marchers chanting litanies. An image of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin was carried in the procession. 

And lo and behold! The poisonous uncleanness of the air yielded to the image as if fleeing from it and being unable to withstand its presence: the passage of the picture brought about a wonderful serenity and purity in the air. We are also told that the voices of the angels were heard around the image, singing… 

Then the pope saw an angel of the Lord standing atop the castle of Crescentius, wiping a bloody sword and sheathing it. Gregory understood that that put an end to the plague, as, indeed, happened. Thereafter the castle was called the Castle of the Holy Angel. 

Selected from The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints 

By Jacobus de Voragine

The bottom line is that all calamities come because God allows them, and they are always for our benefit. The way to deal with them is to turn to the Lord in humility and ask for His aid. I can honestly testify from personal experience that God will come to your assistance. He is always there for you and will never forsake you.

The same thing that applies on a personal level also applies on a collective level. The Battle of Lepanto is a classic case of divine assistance in a calamity. Yet, where are the people turning to the Lord today in our present trial? Where are the prayers and processions? Instead of prayers, we have cancelled masses and hysteria.

The entire world needs to turn to the Lord in prayer and repentance. Sad to say, the Roman Catholic Church needs to do the same thing. Most of our shepherds are MIA on this one. But I can’t do their jobs for them. My job is to get out my beads and turn to our Lord and our Lady. I can still do my job.

If we learn nothing from this mild chastisement, worst ones are in store for us. This is the wake up alarm. Don’t hit the snooze button on this one. Economic calamity and war remain on the list, and God will allow them to happen. I pray that our leaders will pray and repent.

In the meantime, I am in my bunker watching the world go crazy over toilet paper. I am saying my prayers and doing my spiritual reading. I am eating less to ensure our rations hold out. Plus, it is Lent and fasting is good for you. This, too, shall pass. I don't know the future. I just know the future is in God's hands.

Balance Is a Bad Word

What does balance really mean?

RICH ROLL

I knew a smoker who came to the realization that his cigarette habit was taking a toll on his health. I can't remember what the trigger for this realization was. Maybe a scan showed a spot on his lung, or he coughed up some blood. I don't know. But what he said to me next was what I do remember. He said he was going to cut back on his cigarette habit. He wasn't going to quit it. He was just going to step down from three packs a day to maybe a pack and a half. I was just unable to understand this. If you know something is killing you, why would you compromise with the threat?

I encounter this mentality a great deal with the vegan thing. People do get the message that their diet is bad, and animal products are unhealthy. But they never go 100% vegan. They might eat chicken or fish or go vegetarian with the cheese and eggs. Or, they will be some meathead who I have avalanched with overwhelming scientific data on the topic, so they counter with the trope that they believe in moderation and eating a "balanced diet." But what does this even mean?

I am with Aristotle and Aquinas that virtue is the mean between two vices. The problem with this Golden Mean thinking is that people think that all virtue or the means to achieving virtue must be in the middle. Consequently, they pursue the virtue in a half-assed way and call it "balance."

Balance in this sense is not the way to go. When it comes to rooting out vice and pursuing virtue, we must do this with ruthlessness. This is why Jesus told us to cut off our hands and gouge out our eyes if it would get us to Heaven. I do not think our Lord was speaking literally, but He certainly was giving us a vivid illustration of the ruthlessness we should have when it comes to improving ourselves and overcoming our sins.

When someone counsels balance, they are being weak and foolish. If you know something is bad, quit it. If you know something is good, pursue it wholeheartedly. Don't be lukewarm about it. Yes, people will call you an extremist or a fanatic. But they are doing this to assuage their own feelings of shame. Don't be afraid to be hard on yourself. And don't be afraid to tell your critics and detractors to go to Hell. Balance is a bad word.