How will this new virus affect Mass attendance when many sit together, and the receiving of the Body of Christ and at some Masses, the Blood of Christ? For now, there seems to be no uniform mandatory restrictions, no mention that skipping Sunday Mass is permissible unless one is sick.
The Catholic Church still needs to fill the collection baskets, regardless of how virulent the pathogens are that are spreading. It is silent as to church attendance. Therefore, it could be implied that it is better to risk illness and death than to sin.
Perhaps the Catholic Church ought to take this opportunity to remind Catholics, including the elderly and those with underlying chronic illnesses and compromised immune systems that not attending Mass is a mortal sin, and not to think too much about getting infected, and also to remind them to name the Church as a beneficiary in their wills or living trusts in the event they drop dead.
So is obligatory Mass attendance mainly about filling the collection baskets? Or is it truly about worship and prayer? When did Jesus pass around a collection basket when people were gathered around Him to collect money? Did He not feed them fishes and loaves of bread instead? [2]
If keeping a church open is so critical to worship and prayer, then why did one of the most important churches on earth shut its doors?
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is closed [3]:
Palestinian officials on Thursday closed the storied Church of the Nativity in the biblical city of Bethlehem indefinitely over fears of the new coronavirus, weeks ahead of the busy Easter holiday season. [Emphasis added.]
Is it an over-reaction? Perhaps it is. Why worry about death? Everybody dies. Death is a just as much a part of life as life is. Why fear it? When God calls, one ought to embrace the call.
"'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest...'" [4]
Those who are not weary and burdened, who are captivated by what the world gives in all its splendor, may not want to leave just yet. When death beckons, they tremble with fear. It is normal that people fear death because people do not know what comes after, or want to believe what could come after the only life they know.
Death by COVID-19 is only one manner of death. Death can arrive in all different kinds of ways. It ought not to be feared. Just be ready for the moment when God calls. It is unlikely that people will be completely sinless at death, whether they attended Mass in accordance with Catholic teachings or not.
When Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,'" was He implying that this love needed to take place on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation? What about after Mass has ended? What about all the other times when one is not attending Mass?
Can love of God and mortal sin be reduced to a mathematical formula measured by Mass attendance? What is God telling people when He allowed a virulent virus to spread around the world?
Is God trying to remind that people are more alike than they are different? Is God trying to let people know that artificial boundaries separating countries are merely an exercise in vanity? People need documents to cross borders but God has given the world a contagious disease that can hitch a ride and go everywhere without a passport.
While COVID-19 has dominated headlines around the world, there is another problem that is occurring, that was mentioned in a previous post, locusts, which also can cross borders without passing through immigration. Below is an update as of 5 March 2020 [5]:
The situation remains extremely alarming in the Horn of Africa, specifically Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where widespread breeding is in progress and new swarms are starting to form, representing an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods at the beginning of the upcoming cropping season.
EASTERN AFRICA
Kenya. Widespread swarm breeding continues in northern and central counties where an increasing number of hopper bands are forming and, in the past few days, the new generation of immature swarms have started to form. This may be supplemented by new-generation immature swarms arriving from Somalia. Further concentration is expected in Marsabit and Turkana. Aerial and ground control operations continue.
Ethiopia. Swarms continue to mature and breed over a widespread area of Oromiya and SNNPR regions, including the Rift Valley. Cross-border movements continued to be reported from adjacent areas of Somalia and Kenya.
Somalia. In the northwest, late instar hopper bands and immature adult groups are forming between Berbera and Burao. In the northeast, new immature swarms are forming near Garowe. Some swarms may be moving south towards NE Kenya.
South Sudan. The mature swarm seen on 23 February near Laboni and the Uganda border dispersed into many small swarmlets.
Uganda. No new reports of swarms since 24 February.
DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo). No new reports of Desert Locust in the northeast near the Uganda border.
OTHER HOT SPOTS
Sudan. Scattered adults are maturing on the central coast of the Red Sea. No locusts reported elsewhere.
Eritrea. Breeding continued on the central and northern Red Sea coast where groups of hoppers and immature adults formed. A mature swarm appeared on the coast near Massawa and laid eggs. Ground control operations treated 2 712 ha (24–26 Feb).
Saudi Arabia. Ground control operations against hopper bands on the Red Sea coast near Qunfidah finished on 26 February but continued against immature groups in the interior between Wadi Dawasir and the Persian Gulf. Ground teams treated 3 640 ha (19-27 Feb).
Yemen. Another generation of breeding is in progress on the Red Sea coast where hatching and early instar hopper bands continue to form. An immature swarm was seen in Sana'a on 29 February. New breeding was seen on the southern coast near Aden where early and late instar hopper bands were present, the latter forming immature adult groups. Control could not be carried out.
Oman. Breeding continues on the north and east coasts where hopper groups and bands have formed. Swarms were reported recently on the north coast.
Iraq. Swarms were reportedly flying in the southeast between Basrah and Nasiriyah.
Iran. 22 immature swarms spread out along the southwest coast between Bushehr and Bander-e-Lengheh in Fars, Khozestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces where they quickly matured within four days to lay eggs. Local breeding continued in the southeast. Control operations are in progress.
Pakistan. Mature adult groups and swarmlets were seen copulating in Okara district of Punjab and Dera Ismail Khan and Lucky Marwat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Spring breeding is in progress in the interior of Baluchistan between Khuzdar and Dalbandin, and on the southwest coast near Turbat where adult groups are laying eggs and early instar hopper groups are already forming. Ground teams treated 4 490 ha (18-29 Feb). New generation immature groups and swarms could start forming in Baluchistan by the end of March.
Afghanistan. Three swarms reportedly arrived in Khost province from adjacent areas of NW Pakistan on about 21 February.
Even with all that is going on in the world and in the Catholic Church, it not quite the end of days as foretold in Luke 21:5-35. [6]
[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-city-confirms-first-case-of-coronavirus-84365
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A13-21&version=NIV
[3] https://apnews.com/c57bc457c0c1c02a910c1564d8f76715
[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+11%3A28-30&version=NIV
[5] http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/
[6] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+21%3A5-35&version=NIV
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