We no longer attend the parish we are registered in and have called home for the last eight years. Initially it never occurred to me that we would be making a move when the churches were all shut down last spring. Because of our age we thought it might be a good thing to start going back to a smaller parish and at a mass time that is sparsely attended. Many continued, even after the government dictators said it was ok to open churches, to stay at home, hunkered in their bunkers against the deadly killer lurking just beyond their door. ---unless they needed bacon or booze, of course.
I overheard
the woman in front of me recently at the grocery checkout line, chatting up the
cashier. She was telling him how many
donuts were in her bakery bag and where the price was on her deli mac and
cheese container. Even through her mask,
I recognized her familiar voice and I called out, Hello, (name here), how are
you? It’s nice to see you again. This person is a staffer at the liberal
social justice parish we left eight years ago and seeing it was me, startled
her somewhat. She was polite enough but
only in a courteous way. I asked her
about another person in that parish who used to be my friend. I asked if she was still in that parish and
this person’s answer was, “I wouldn’t know, I can’t attend mass. I’m compromised.”
She can go
to Safeway, but not mass. She can live
without the Eucharist, but just not her mac n cheese. This parish, by the way is now closed again
by order of the pastor who has the virus.
He suspended all masses and all office hours. His parish has from the beginning required
reservations, designated seating, escorted entrance and exit, no communion on
the tongue, and masks masks masks!!!
After a
couple of weeks, we did attend mass at the parish where we are registered and
were frankly stunned at the appearance of blue painters tape and written
directives hung on alternating pews to NOT SIT IN THIS ROW. Few people were there. The priest wore a mask and so did 99% of the
people in the pews. I understood why
they were wearing them. Or thought I
did. Most were afraid, but as weeks went
on, it became obvious that there was less actual fear than there was an
attitude of smugness and pride that THEY cared about people and THEY would
comply with this “order” no matter how foolish it is in fact. Real fact.
IF you are sick and IF you are afraid then stay home or wear a mask IF
it makes you feel better. I don’t have a
problem with that. But this is no longer
the case with most people who are not afraid, but only determined to get
everyone else to do what they have chosen to do.
I despise
that kind of blind obedience and need convincing that wearing a cotton broadcloth
homemade mask in your favorite pattern or color is going to save the
nation.
When I spoke
to the pastor, whom I respect and adore, he said not only are people getting
less likely to wear a mask in the near future, he is being pressured by some
who do mask up to DEMAND and REQUIRE everyone else to do the same. In other words, how dare they show up without
a mask! (The question one would like to
ask them, of course, is: “If your mask
is working, then why do I need one? I
won’t catch anything from you, and you can’t catch anything from me.” Assuming of course, that YOUR mask IS working
and forming your conclusion that I should have one.)
They
believe, it seems, and want to convince others to assume that if we ALL just
simply wore a mask we would be cured.
For how long must we wear them?
They don’t say. And of course,
they carve out all kinds of exceptions to this virus victory strategy such as
when you eat, give speeches, are six feet apart, or in the company of your
blood relatives or sexual partners.
So, I won’t
go to that parish anymore. I am not
welcome there. I won’t force myself on
others. They can make up their own mind
about how to live.
We have
continued to attend a neighboring parish where 99.5% do not wear masks. Everyone receives Holy Communion on the tongue
on their knees at a Communion Rail from the hand of a priest who also does not
wear a mask. People sit a respectful
distance from each other but there is no insulting blue paper tape on the ends
of the pews. The pastor thinks we are
all smart enough to take care of ourselves.
If we come, we know what we are there for and it isn’t to get a weekly
affirmation from other mask wearers that we are obedient little minions to
government control.
This is a link to a story about religious people in New York who are up to their gill
slits with mandates and prohibitions that restrict and impair the rights of
Americans to worship freely. Wearing a
mask isn’t enough. The mayor of NYC and
the governor of the state have put limits on the number who can enter at ten
people. Any disobedience will get you a
hefty fine to pay. It isn’t hard to
figure out that they won’t be happy until people give up religion all together,
stay home, and follow orders. This is
one of the reasons why I have resisted mask wearing from the very start. Once you give in to oppression, it is harder
and harder to fight back the next, and the next time they require you to do something.
I hope you
will watch this video and if you are able, that you will broadcast it to a
television for the benefit of a bigger screen.
It is an hour and fifteen minute recording of a conference/meeting
sponsored by Hillsdale College on this very issue---mask wearing, fear
promotion, control, and the trampling of the Constitution. It will be the best hour you have
spent in the last five months, I promise you.
So give up one of your evening programs and watch this instead, or view
it with a cup of coffee in hand one afternoon this week.
I heard from
a friend in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago, that public school is
closed again completely and has virtual learning only until further
notice. Two students tested
positive. TWO. My friend’s sons are in the eighth and twelfth
grade and neither believes their pitiful excuse for an education is worth
anything at all as long as this continues.
And it will continue no matter how much we try to deny it. I haven’t made up my mind if we are in the
boxcar or in the actual gas chamber (meaning no disregard to the very real
suffering of the victims of the Third Reich as I use this painful imagery) We have walked into this situation quite
willingly in most cases and with no thought whatsoever of the eventual
outcome. We should have known at the end
of the first 15 day cautious halt to normal life that we had a real problem on
our hands by allowing it to continue. If not then, Easter, if not
then, graduation, if not then, if not then, if not then. One wonders exactly how silent “Silent Night”
will be this December 24.
God help us.
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