One such manifestation of this is of a large "charity" beach party in the Romney Marsh area during which social distancing was not observed and after which the beach was utterly covered in litter. The organisers have pledged £750 towards the clean up, but one does question what people were thinking, or weren't thinking.
Clearly the whole pandemic situation has brought much confusion to light in our society. We've had expert pitted against expert; we've had advice which has been denounced; and we've had laws which have been ignored by government officials such as Dominic Cummings. It seems quite clear from the reports of his paper-thin excuse that Mr Cummings thinks that the rules don't apply to him.
The wearing of masks has been required in this country. In the US, the wearing of masks has not received universal legislation but remains as a guideline policed by busybodies and the arbiters of social justice.
We see here two extremes: one is a law that is being ignored; the other is a recommendation that is being enforced. It is a very tricky situation and it means that we really do have to see where our commitments lie.
Our Lord looks at our hearts to make His judgement of us. Our underlying motives are as clear to Him as the daylight. He will know whether we comply with laws out of commitment to the community or disobey them out of selfishness and some belief that the law doesn't apply to us. He will know whether we insist on a recommendation out of respect for a very particular situation or whether forcing someone to comply is an instance of virtue signalling to make us look morally superior.
The Christian has a duty for the good of his community. This is not just a Benedictine thing; it really is a Church-wide thing. Our motivation can only be for the love of God and for neighbour.
There are those who refuse to wear masks because, "the Lord will protect me. I just need to have faith!" To them, the Lord says, "do not put the Lord thy God to the test." We might be delivered symptoms from the disease but we might pass the disease to others.
There are those who will insist that everyone wears masks whom the Lord will describe as straining a gnat and swallowing a camel. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for not wearing a mask.
The Christian commits to the unity of the Church. The Ignatian idea of the local church as being the people gathered around their bishop is a strong model which bears witness to the Gospel if Christ. It only works when the people obey the bishop and the bishop serves his people. The same is true for the relationship between parish and priest. We have to exhibit that commitment in our church working. If the bishop is celebrating in green then his priests should be celebrating in green out of a genuine desire to effect that sense of unity visually.
Of course, for any rule, recommendation and piece of advice there are exceptions and exemptions: that's reasonable. If we seek to use an exemption then we need to examine our heart carefully to see if, deep down, we want the exemption in order just to do our own thing. We can dress our reason for exemption with many convincing words and careful and clever reasonings but, ultimately, we have to be sure that our exemption would be better for the whole community than not.
Either we pull together or we come apart in the storm. Either we work together to contain the virus or we lose more lives to it. Either we seek the good of the community or the community suffers.
If we want to be truly community-minded then let us be so for the sake of God and of our neighbours. The exemption from Love is Hell.
1 comment:
Thank you, Fr Jonathan. Many people just haven't cottoned on to the fact that we are (to some extent) protected from contamination by the potentially infected other person wearing a mask and keeping the prescribed distance. We wear the mask to protect the other person because we might have the disease and be asymptomatic. It is thus an altruistic gesture and an expression of a social contract.
There is precious little social contract because more and more people are growing up to be narcissistic, toxic and utterly selfish. That said, it also happened during the Spanish Flu pandemic, when the authorities had to threaten mask-sceptics with prison.
The principle is simple: the mask will not stop gases with suspended virus molecules, but will stop outgoing liquids from the person who coughs or sneezes. That is the principle of the surgeon's mask, to protect the patient from the viruses and bacteria in the surgeon's breath.
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