Disagreeing with Canceling Holy Week

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FYI, my county, in its directive did not mention churches are religious gatherings. It gave the rules, mentioned everything (else) it applied to, and mentioned exemptions. It dodged the First Amendment issue by ignoring it. After all, if the Church did require that Mass continue, we would have to continue regardless of the law. But of course, the Church is a beacon of life and mercy.

We are holding our Mass by YouTube - St. Jerome Clute, if anyone is interested. It will be up by 10 am.
 
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The problem is the secular society we’re living in. Wouldn’t they love it if big churches turned out to be virus hotspots. I say, Don’t give them any more ammunition.
 
There has already been at least one large Christian Church in the news regarding this. Of course, regardless of causality, the safety and concern for the people should be the overriding goal.
 
I think people will change their view on wanting everything to remain as it was, and being distressed by all the changes we are all undergoing now, when the full reality of this pandemic sinks in.

We are not in a bad flu season. We are in a global pandemic.
 
We need to trust in our Lord and His Mercy. He knows if we can’t go to confession, so why doubt His Mercy? If we are truly repentant for our sins, will He not know that? Of course He will. Jesus, I trust in You!
 
The problem is that you are not only assessing the risk for yourself, but other people as well who you might come in contact with before you begin exhibiting symptoms. If you go to Mass and get the virus from someone, you will then potentially infect every environment you go to until you realize you are sick. And then everyone one you infect goes on to infect other people before they realize they are sick. Unfortunately, this is a situation where people disagree that they have the responsibility to protect others. Those in authority, including the bishops, have to play the authority card to protect people from those who “just don’t get it”. So, I guess this falls into the category of “It’s been explained to you several times. If you still don’t get it, sorry, but this is the way it’s going to be and you’re going to have to live with it.” I honestly think the best course of action is to think about how you can make the celebration of Easter special from home. We plan to watch the bishop’s broadcast of the Saturday vigil. We are planting a Resurrection garden. We’re going to use tape and window chalk to make "stained glass windows in our living room and build a homemade altar. We’re going to buy Easter lilies from Trader Joe and use twinkle lights under a white table cloth to make it pretty. Then we’re going to read our kids the Easter readings (Precious Moments version) and sing and pray together as a family. And while its okay that we miss the way we normally do things, we’re going to be okay with doing things differently this year.
 
It’s appalling to me that many would risk transmission of covid-19, and killing others for the convenience of receiving communion. Are they to share from the chalice? Sit in close proximity? Very weak arguments bringing up Walmart, and Costco. I agree with you 100%, VonDerTann. It’s time to wise up. Online mass may seen inconvenient but I’d rather have that than not attend mass at all. The Church can eventually figure something out.
 
This virus could mutate yearly (or even be artificially altered) The precedence of allowing its influence has been set. How far are you willing to allow the influence it now has over your decisions? This is the question all must now answer!
 
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k.vasquez222 said:
It’s appalling to me that many would risk transmission of covid-19, and killing others for the convenience of receiving communion.
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The Holy Sacrament is not a convenience. Trivializing the Mass is no answer to the OP.
 
VonDerTann said:
I’m certainly not happy about it. The only thing worse than closed churches is open churches filled with people - and some of them are infected…
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I would hope that some solutions in between these two might be in place sooner rather than later, not just for Mass, but for society. If anyone believes that we are locked down until Easter, I have a would love to sell them timeshares. We are in need of long term solutions, compromises, that will last us for months.
 
IanM said:
This virus could mutate yearly (or even be artificially altered)
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Since there has been little good news, I will add that one piece of good news is that the virus seems to mutate much slower that influenza, leaving us the hope that a vaccine might be a one time need. Not that this will be the last pandemic, but it might be the only corona virus pandemic.
 
davetv said:
I prefer bishops to care more about the next life, than this one.
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Read St JP2, “Theology of the Body”.
It’s not like comparing This Life to the Next One.

There’s a heresy that considers the body just as a necessary evil, a carrier for the Real me, the soul.

Not only is my body important, so are the bodies of others. Am I really scoring points for the next life by risking the health of a mother of young children, or the priest?

There’s another kind of “virus” going around in the last couple decades, to urge suspicion of the Bishop’s authority. There’s a false “Magisterium” of the websites.
 
commenter said:
There’s a heresy that considers the body just as a necessary evil, a carrier for the Real me, the soul.
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I don’t believe that is what anyone means here when they are speaking of caring for our eternal souls. We are to detach from this world and draw closer to God. That doesn’t mean we think our bodies are evil, just that eternity with God is our goal and our main purpose in this life. When many people are dying around us, Christian charity will also be concerned about their eternity.
 
No it isn’t. Right now, we are in survival mode, trying to prevent as many deaths as possible and buying time. By this time next year, there will lively be a vaccine. There may be effective medical treatments developed. There will hopefully be more long term changes that allow us to deal with this sort of situation more effectively and without such extreme “survival mode” measures. It’s a constantly changing situation and the level of risk will also change. There is no reason that our future response to this particular virus needs to be determined now. What’s important now is that we do our best to not spread it around.
 
Unfortunately Magdalena some people think precisely as you indicate they don’t. It might no be as you see it but some clearly do. Some people literally think it’s heroic to risk their lives to attend mass.

When challenged that they’re risking others’ lives (including priests’ lives) their answer is basically some permutation of 1) “that’s the priest’s job!” Or 2) “that’s the best way to die!” Or 3) it’s more important to attend mass no matter the possibly awful consequences to others.

That’s just bad theology.

I see this as an extreme form of selfishness: to them, their “right” to attend mass is superior to others’ right to life.

Yes, mass is important. But as I’ve posted earlier, it can be and sometimes is dispensed with under various circumstances.
 
IanM said:
This virus could mutate yearly (or even be artificially altered) The precedence of allowing its influence has been set. How far are you willing to allow the influence it now has over your decisions? This is the question all must now answer!
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No, this is a question we may have to answer, in the future, as we see how this pandemic runs its course, and what science is able to do for it.
Meanwhile, the priority remains to flatten the curve so that our medical facilities are not completely overwhelmed. If my attendance at Mass is the price of saving lives, I pay it gladly.
 
VonDerTann said:
Unfortunately Magdalena some people think precisely as you indicate they don’t. It might no be as you see it but some clearly do. Some people literally think it’s heroic to risk their lives to attend mass.
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So, I was responding to the comment that people think the body is evil. I believe that thought is far from what is happening here.

Also, and in all charity, I think we will have to agree to disagree. I do not think that people are wanting to attend Mass out of selfishness, or lack of concern for others but because in times of crisis their longing is to turn to the one who holds their life and their eternal soul in His hand.

I, do think there are times it can be selfishness when in other situations people are ignoring the self-distancing but not when it comes to a desire for the Mass.

I also believe that there are some who truly may not understand how viruses are spread from one person to another. I work in the health profession and one thing I was taught is never assume that everyone understands.

God bless

📿
 
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Would you suggest we shut down everything and let people starve to death? What happens when someone’s plumbing breaks? Let their house be destroyed? People need to eat and need shelter. You cannot shut down everything in a society for months on end just to flatten the curve.

And I KNOW I am going to get lambasted for this as I am in the vast majority here, as least from the standpoint of those online here and now. But before I say that, I am being obedient to my priest and my bishop and staying home from Mass.

Now, as one or two others have been saying, is that personal responsibility and risk taking is among those who wish to accept personal responsibility. If I am in the high risk group, and I decide to go out, I (ME) take that risk. I CHOSE it. I accept responsibility for MY actions, not the actions of others. If I chose to eat junk food all of my life, smoke 2 packs a day, drink a fifth of vodka every day, and now I have lung disease, stomach cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, who’s fault is that? Yours? Mine? No… the person who did that. Our hospitals are full up with people who never exercised, and abused their bodies for decades on end. Sure, some people have diseases through no fault of their own (e.g.: genetics) or other problems (e.g.: congenital birth problems, or accidents), for which I have to greatest of sympathies. But those who have over decades of abuse have caused diseases for which they are in the hospital and taking up beds, although it is my duty as a Christian to care for them, I do not participate in the globally-shared (you have no fault attitude). There is a shortage of beds and masks in certain locations because 9 out of 10 people are storming the hospitals when they have the sniffles and do not need to go and because those who abused their bodies for decades are in the hospitals. And no one is mentioning that masks and ventilators are available, there is not a nation-wide shortage, just localized shortages, for the reasons I purport above. Those hospitals with shortages need to reach out to other hospitals to get supplies, yet they can’t because the mild cases are flooding the hospitals and they don’t have time.

Rant over. Let the lambasting begin about how I am not a Christian, want people to die, and all the other nasties…
 
JoeFreedom said:
Would you suggest we shut down everything and let people starve to death? What happens when someone’s plumbing breaks? Let their house be destroyed? People need to eat and need shelter. You cannot shut down everything in a society for months on end just to flatten the curve.
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I completely agree. These things are needed. No I do not want then shut down, of course. As I heard a priest on EWTN say yesterday, people are extremely hungry right now in this crisis for Christ. I just think we need a little understanding for that. Not stop social distancing but be understanding that there is a hunger there also.
JoeFreedom said:
Rant over. Let the lambasting begin about how I am not a Christian, want people to die, and all the other nasties…
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As I said in another post, I work in the health care field and your post or “rant” was right on. This is what is happening in the hospitals right now.
 
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