Love in the Time of Coranovirus

A lot of people are complaining about the bishops who are cancelling public Masses, dispensing from Mass, closing down all large congregations out of concern that the chain of coronavirus contagion needs to be broken. Those who disagree with the bishops' decisions argue that the Mass is central to Catholic life, that we cannot live without the Eucharist, that God will certainly protect His own.

The bishops who are suspending the celebration of public Mass are in the right.
Everyone criticizing them are in the wrong.
This is not H1N1 - it's much worse.
This is not about the carriers, it's about the crowds.
But most important, this is about the liturgy, and the work liturgical and sacramental grace is meant to do in us.

CCC 1070: “In the New Testament the word "liturgy" refers not only to the celebration of divine worship but also to the proclamation of the Gospel and to active charity”

It is not charitable to spread illness. If the liturgy does not create in us the sense to protect the vulnerable, then we have not received the graces the liturgy is meant to provide. Rome has closed her churches to protect the vulnerable. The Mass is still celebrated, but not publicly. Do you honestly imagine the graces will not flow to you?

Look, I get it. Mass is important. The Eucharist is the center of the existence of the universe. And it's not like I have never taken a risk to attend Mass. Several years ago, when we attended traditionalist Latin Mass, there was a threat on the life of the pastor. The individual in question promised to come in during the middle of Sunday morning Mass and shoot the pastor dead. The pastor dispensed all the traddies from attending Mass that Sunday, and not a single trad protested that the priest was being a wimp. Not a single one. This, despite the fact that the targeted priest did not tell them to simply attend a Novus Ordo Mass at any of the dozen nearby churches, but rather dispensed them from attending any Mass anywhere at all.

On the Sunday in question, I took my family, my wife and all four children, all of them under the age of 10 at the time, to the Mass where the gunman had promised to show up. That was the Mass we always attended. I didn't go out of my way to enter harm's way, and I didn't go out of my way to avoid it. We went to Mass as we did every Sunday. And when we got there, what did we see?

The church was almost empty. We were the only family with children there. A small smattering of men had sprinkled themselves through the church, a security guard with a pistol stood at the door, and ... that was it. I was chuckling to myself all during Mass about the wonderful bravery of trad parishioners and how clearly they showed what they were willing to sacrifice for their priest and their Latin Mass.

Obviously, the gunman never showed up (as I figured he wouldn't).

Now, you might say that I deliberately put my family in harm's way, and how is this different than coronavirus? The difference is, I put MY family at risk, not someone else's, not people I don't even know. The difference is, the risk of that blowhard showing up was a hell of a lot lower than the risk  that large congregations will transmit a virus and kill old people I never met.

The difference is, you can stare down a gunman, change his mind, assist in his salvation, while a virus is a barely animate chain of RNA that has no soul to save.