Is Covid-19 God’s chastisement? – 3

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

In its issue of February 26 – April 5, 2020, the National Catholic Register seems to have anticipated the present pandemic and already sent out its warning by quoting St. John Paul II “strong message of Fatima”, of May 13, 1982.

The Register said, “it is imperative we pay attention!” because the Pope “presents himself, reading again with trepidation the motherly call to penance, to conversion, the ardent appeal of the Heart of Mary that resounded at Fatima…because he sees how many people and societies — how many Christians — have gone in the opposite direction to the one indicated in the message of Fatima. Sin has thus made itself firmly at home in the world, and denial of God has become widespread in the ideologies, ideas and plans of human beings.”

For that reason, The Register said, “the call to repentance and conversion, uttered in the Mother’s message, remains ever relevant. It is still more relevant than it was 65 years ago. It is still more urgent.”

On October 13, 2010, the 93rd anniversary of the apparition, on his flight to Fatima, Pope Benedict XVI perceived, “As for the new things which we can find in this message today, there is also the fact that attacks on the Pope and the Church come not only from without, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin existing within the Church…today we are seeing it in a really terrifying way: that the greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church, and that the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also purification, to learn forgiveness on the one hand, but also the need for justice. Forgiveness does not replace justice. In a word, we need to relearn precisely these essentials: conversion, prayer, penance and the theological virtues…in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history.” The emphasis is mine.

Four things are imperative for us to receive forgiveness and finally mercy: penance and purification. Most prayers today ask God for help but there is no call for penance and purification, the requisites for God’s mercy. Is there a contrive in this exclusion of repentance and atonement?

Possibly the enemies within the Church quickly acted to close the churches and withdrew God from the faithful and vice-versa. The churches need not be closed; there are ways as I will discuss later what others are doing to provide the faithful’s need for spiritual sustenance.

The world scrambles to prevent the spread of the disease but for a few recoveries the virus continues to inflict pandemonium. How and when will this end? The National Catholic Register asked.

“Will the end of this 100 years also in some way mean the end of the time the devil was given, if those times ran fairly parallel? The Holy Fathers have noted and detailed in several encyclicals about these enemies within. And Communism’s part in that role – first by Russia and now by China.”

I will discuss in succeeding columns the NCR reference to “end of the time the devil was given”. Our Lady said “if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms that will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers Believe it or not, people have to look at what Our Lady also added that July apparition after mentioning that if we didn’t listen to her directives “Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated.”

Continued tomorrow.