Do Not Be Afraid

I feel like my blog titles are stuck on repeat recently.  Since we seem to be grinding slowly, and even moving backwards, in the quagmire that is Covid mentality, then I feel justified in repeating some statements.  In April, I offered "Be Not Afraid".  So today I offer a new, and still familiar "Do Not Be Afraid".

In May I wrote a detailed and lengthy email and sent it to various priests who were members of the re-opening committees throughout our parish, and also the overall archdiocese.  I probably seemed overly insensitive, but in part, my statement opened with:

"From my spiritual leaders, I would hope that their greatest concern is for the state of my immortal soul, and the souls of all members of their flock...  From religious leaders, we should want and expect concern for the well being of our spirituality FIRST AND FOREMOST, and possibly even in contradiction to our health, if those choices face off against each other."

But I will save you from the long-winded writings of a nobody.  I'm just a (potentially) crazy dad who, more and more, feels misplaced in the world.  The more I turn to scriptures, the more I feel the world is drifting, nay sprinting, further away from advice given through the Word.

Instead I offer this link, and the more competent writings of a self-proclaimed "physician of souls."  Attached please find a fairly quick read from Msgr. Charles Pope from earlier this month, in the National Catholic Register (through EWTN):

"Coronavirus Stalks in the Darkness, But Do Not Be Afraid"

I will end as I ended my email from May:

"If my physical body dies today, but upon death I am united with Christ in heaven, then all was a success!  If my physical body avoids infection, and I prolong life on earth for another day, or decades more, but I am denied the source and summit of our faith that brings grace, (and also the real fellowship of the full Body of Christ on Earth), then was health worth the cost?"

"I do, as always, continue to pray that the Holy Spirit guides your judgement towards God's Will, first and foremost."

written by:  Matt Buehrig

inspired by:  My Wife, who searches for TRUTH above all else, and does not allow fear to hold her...not through the years our daughter battled cancer...not through the deaths of family members...not through everyday crisis that surround us.