Look to the Horizon

The day may be far spent, but there is still hope for those who look to the horizon. For the light of the rising sun shines forth over the edge, shines through the Church and Her Sacraments, shines through the grace of God without end. Such has been established by Christ in his time on Earth, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. We must continue to search for the sun, the Beloved Son, who will come again.

I must confess that I am angry.

Angry because there seems to me to have been an exponential decrease of the proper exercising of rational faculties and an increase in unwarranted sensitivity to the expectations of some societal forces. There seems to have been a general decrease of courage in the common man; the lips of the silent majority have not only been glued, but superglued. With time, however, I do think the glue is decomposing (or rather, the dam is cracking). The exchange of opinions is no longer free but covert. The pursuit of truth is now even more offensive than it was before. Certain authorities have “protected” away the trust of their subjects. Those who dissent only do so in their hearts, and those whose dissention is manifested are written away as radical, irrelevant and annoying. Actions do not follow attitudes: harmony is far and few between.

I speak mainly with respect to masks, you see.

I write to publicly pose the question of whether or not wearing a mask is a conflict of the intellect or the will. For if wearing a mask is contrary to the intellect, then should an ordinance which requires their donning be obeyed? But if the mask does not obstruct the truth, and if the act of wearing such an article is indeed essentially good, then is not disobedience a sin? As taught by the Angelic Doctor, a law is "an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated." So, for a law to merit obedience, it must be made with proper reasoning, proper intention, proper result, and by the proper authority. All of these are proportional to the span of the law.

Now I am neither an analytic philosopher nor a lawyer nor a virologist, but common-sense reasoning and elementary observation skills tell me the threat posed by the pandemic is not because of the disease itself. There are far more pressing matters than bodily preservation; holy martyrs did not freely accept death for no reason. Sometimes breathing is not as important when other realities are accounted for, a reality like the soul. Personally, I would rather be on death’s door than forget what a friend’s smile looks like. I would rather have my earthly life end quicker than have my days be spent in hypochondriacal fear with my only comfort being the lemony smell of my sanitizer. I would rather be in the beatific vision just a little bit sooner than participate in behavior which directly facilitates mental illness and suicide. I would like to see a person, not half a person. Our bodies are a physical manifestation of spiritual realities, as we are made in the image of God. What do you think will eventually happen to our faith if we hide away our bodies?

Let us remember that this earthly life is nothing in comparison to heaven: “All is vanity.”

I think we should stop arguing with statistics which have been issued to the public by institutions which quite obviously do not have our best interests in mind, considering corporate America has wholly embraced the materialistic worldview and that, despite one’s political opinion, no politician always has his people’s needs at the forefront of his policies. And seeing as the main media sources from which the public draws their information are largely controlled by organizations with particular political agendas, can we really trust that we are getting all the facts? For these reasons (and others) do I suggest that we utilize a more productive and honest way of finding out the truth: personal dialogue. Talk with people about their experiences. Ask each other about what they went through since late 2019 to the present. Look for inconsistencies between the general experience of people versus the narrative given to us by institutions. Listen to how every individual has been affected by the virus in all spheres of life: physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, etc. Only when we come together and eliminate the odd circumstance of being simultaneously social and isolated can we discover the real narrative. Only then can we be sure of the situation. Only then can we know how to move forward without fear and uncertainty. 

Being unable to let a good metaphor go to waste, I point out that this earthly story parallels that of a heavenly one. For right now we all have clouded vision. We cannot see the full truth about this virus, though we seem to catch glimpses of it here and there. Only after we come together and see each other in person and restore our relationships can we see the truth. This is like how we know God. Right now, we are broken by sin and limited in our vision and are thus unable to see God. Only when we meet Him in the beatific vision can we know the full reality of the Holy Trinity: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.