TAKING CARE OF PESTILENCE

Pestilence,  Famine,  War,   Death

A Spiritual Interpretation

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Pestilence –    noun:   a worldwide deadly disease;   plague

Plague –   noun:  a worldwide deadly disease;  pestilence

Pandemic  –  noun:    a worldwide deadly disease; see plague, pestilence

No matter what century you live in,  there is a word for it!   That shows that this is a recurring human phenomenon.

We are not the only people who have ever asked questions about the reason.   In the last post I put forth some reasonable questions.     In thinking about those questions,  underlying them all is the uneasy sense of  “What did we do wrong (to deserve this)?”

There are some proud and hard hearts who will tell themselves they don’t think that way –  but history has shown that people in general do ask that;  there is that nagging, sometimes unspoken feeling that, yeah,  this is a spiritual matter,    we deserve this – not each individual,  but humanity as a whole.      Exempt yourself, if you will;  but it’s still happening, this current plague or pestilence.

I have so much material to write, but I will try to keep it focused down to one-tenth of what could be said.

So what have we historically done when faced with periodic pestilences?

Feeling somehow at fault, societies have always propitiated their gods; and the descendants of Noah, descendants of Abraham,   have appealed to God-Most-High.  Just as a matter of factual history,  the appeals and propitiations have taken the form of  acknowledging guilt,  sorrow for sin,  public penitence, penance, prayers and fasting;  sometimes “sackcloth, ashes,”  and bare feet — and always sacrifices.

Although I count the rise of modern man from about 10,500 B.C.,  I’ll just skim across fairly recent history.  That would be after the rise of Christianity, those descendants of Abraham by faith or by birth, all who acknowledge Jesus as Messiah  (who is the “Light to enlighten the Gentiles”):

At the end of the third century, and reaching a critical point in 302 A.D. was a terrible recorded plague in the Roman Empire.   It was followed by famine, a common consequence of plague because there are not enough people left to grow or transport food.   Both pagans and Christians supplicated their gods/God.

In the  fourth and fifth centuries, as the Roman Empire decayed and fell, there was a succession of plagues brought on by  warfare, famine, and foreign invaders.   Christian writers in that day frequently point the finger at the rise of Arianism, a heresy that  denied the divinity of Christ, and led ultimately to the weakness of Christian doctrine in North Africa and the Middle East, including Arabia.

(An interesting consequence of this heresy is that these are the very same regions that succumbed to the armies of followers of the Arab desert crescent moon-god . . . .those followers still in existence today.)

There was another terrible plague that struck Christian regions, especially the city of Rome, during the time of Pope Gregory the Great, which is 590 – 603 A.D.    Here we have a detailed account of what was done to end the plague.

Gregory organized a massive procession around the city, inviting everyone to pray to God that the plague would be lifted.  At the head of the procession was held high a portrait of the Virgin Mary, believed to have been painted by St. Luke.

As this procession moved through the city,  eyewitnesses say that the air seemed to grow clearer   and more “serene.”  Some reported to hear angelic voices above,  singing this familiar song of praise:

Regina coeli laetare, alleluia,
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,
Resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia!

Some of you will recognize this sung during the weeks following Easter, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.     Pope Gregory added the words:  Ora pro nobis, Deum rogamus, alleluia!

According to history, then:

Then the pope saw an angel of the Lord standing atop the castle of Crescentius, wiping a bloody sword and sheathing it. Gregory understood that that put an end to the plague, as, indeed, happened. Thereafter the castle was called the Castle of the Holy Angel.

 

You can visit that “castle”  there today.

This most famous episode in Christian history became the model for turning to God in a time of pestilence, and gives Christians hope that God will have mercy, and hear.

Today, we are still exhorted to go prayerfully to God, confess guilt,  to do penance, to change our ways,  to fast, to supplicate for the end of the disease,  to intercede for others . . . .  I have read of several public processions (mostly in Europe)  and many calls to prayer –  a day of prayer set aside, here and there.

Exhortations to read and meditate on times past when God’s anger has been aroused and He has allowed plagues (and wars and famines and natural disasters) to happen as a way of calling people back to Him.    (Read Old Testament stories of Noah, Judith, King David,  the people of Israel at times.)

We today are exhorted to also read the Seven Penitential Psalms.

We are exhorted to meditate our way through the Gospel, point by point, in a prayer commonly called the Rosary.

We are exhorted to meditate our way through the last hours of Jesus’ life –  in a series of meditations called The Stations of the Cross.

Public prayer, private prayer –  we are exhorted to do something!

And what about sacrifice?    As I wrote above,  .”…the appeals and propitiations have taken the form of  acknowledging guilt,  sorrow for sin,  public penitence, penance, prayers and fasting;  sometimes “sackcloth, ashes,”  and bare feet — and always sacrifices….”

 

     Jesus came to be the one Sacrifice for us, for all of humanity, and us as individuals.   But Jesus is Eternal God,  the Second Person of the Trinity –  His Sacrifice is eternal and eternally touches every minute of “time.”     We are not meant to “remember” once a month or twice a year or once a year in a kind of imitation;   The “Last Supper:  occurred from evening to  evening –  and encompasses the Crucifixion, as well as His own explanation –   I am giving my Body and Blood for you:  Take, eat;  take, drink.

 

This is what occurs at every Holy.   Sacrifice.   Of.  The.  Mass.   Catholics tend to take the Bible literally,  and to participate in the Mass is to offer the Eternal Sacrifice of Christ to God the Father.

There you are.

You can do things to take care of our present-day pestilence.

Ora pro nobis.

Explore posts in the same categories: Bad Times, Current Events

Tags: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Pandemic, Penance, prayer

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