RBWords - Volume 33 - Number 5: May 2020
Something to Think About
R. B. WORDS – VOL. 33 – NO. 5 – MAY 2021
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT –
I think one could justifiably consider the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic to be World War III! It certainly engages the entire planet in a battle of survival. Our own belated national response has finally begun to show some results. Those of us who have been fully and effectively vaccinated can stop wearing masks most of the time. Dioceses are beginning to allow public events and lifting the dispensation from attending Sunday Mass. But elsewhere in the world, the pandemic rages on.
All of us will have our own stories to tell about how the pandemic impacted our lives. I did not get ill, but I was unable to attend the funeral of my younger brother who died suddenly from non-COVID causes last May, nor was I able, under the circumstances still prevailing now, to do much celebrating of my 50th anniversary of ordination (May 22). My “hardship” pales in significance compared with those who have lost loved-ones to the virus.
Predictions about people getting accustomed to attending Mass online and not wanting to return to in-person worship are not coming true here. We are seeing normal, if not more than normal, attendance. Social events are beginning to occur as the “next normal” begins to take shape. Prayers are still very much in order for places like India and Africa where only a very small percentage of the population have been vaccinated. I was fortunate enough to be vaccinated Jan. 11 and Feb. 2. I urge all my Beloved Readers to do the same. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
It Has Been Said
Christian faith believes that there is no deeper desire in the human heart than that of being united with God. For this reason, desire does not need to be repressed, but rather educated to orient it to its true end. Intelligence and will are not the jailors of desire, but its guides and assistants that level the road and help it to overcome obstacles. For virtue ethics, moral effort does not consist in a spasm of the will, forced to comply with the law, but in a patient exercise to fortify the muscles and allow the best of what lies hidden within us to emerge. In a virtuous person, will, intelligence and desire are allies that cooperate to bring the person to his or her true goal: true happiness, found in communion with others and with God.
From AN INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTAN ETHICS – A New Testament Perspective b
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