TAKE THE VACCINE!

 A SERMON FOR THE 25TH AND LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

“And there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”  Here we are again in church this morning.  We’ve come here hoping for hope.  With our simple faith, we’ve come here looking for the peace of mind that we know comes from being in the presence of our blessed Lord.  We’ve come here, therefore, hoping that Father’s sermon will be a bit less depressing than those we’ve had the past few weeks.  And so, when we read through today’s Gospel about the abomination of desolation in the high places, the coming of the Antichrist, and the end of the world, we may be excused for giving a silent inward groan, and thinking, “Oh dear, here we go again.”  We’re disappointed perhaps, that instead of receiving words of hope this morning from our Lord, he gives us instead the sternest of warnings and signs of some rather awful things that are to come.  “This generation shall not pass away,” he declares, “till all these things be fulfilled.”  The sense of urgency, of foreboding that we are about to embark on a very difficult time, is prevalent everywhere we turn, and it seems inescapable.  There’s nowhere, it seems, where we can turn for comfort.  But is that true?  Let’s find out.

“There shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”  What kind of tribulation will it be?  We are not told, but knowing the terrible sufferings of man’s history, and knowing that this will be far worse, it is not surprising that our imagination runs riot as we wonder how we shall abide it.  The only consolation is that our Lord tells us that “for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.”

Should we surprised by this unrelenting progress towards the inevitable?  Was it not foretold by our blessed Lady at Fatima?  Did not our Lady of La Salette weep openly at the horrors that were to unfold when Rome would become the seat of the Antichrist?  The third secret of Fatima is still a secret, but it is a secret so terrible that the Church has not dared to reveal it to the faithful.  Good priests like Fr. Malachi Martin who actually saw the original document on which the secret is written warn us that it is beyond the worst possibilities we’re capable of imagining.

We were told by St. Matthew in last Sunday’s Gospel that our Lord “spake in parables” and that “without a parable spake he not unto them.”  So let me speak to you today also in a parable, so that perhaps, we may find somewhere to turn for comfort, a way perhaps to think about how to deal with the difficulties we face.  I can’t make the difficulties go away.  God’s plan will not be thwarted, nor, I should remind you, do we even know the day or hour when it will be fulfilled.  All I can do is try and prepare you for the impact these things will have—if they happen at all—on our faith, our hope, and our love of God and neighbor.  And so, let the parable begin.

We’re in the process of going through a global pandemic.  Covid-19.  It’s been quite a ride, and it’s not over yet.  Whether it’s just a variation of the flu, or a biological weapon designed by the Deep State to subjugate the masses, this is not the time or place to figure out these things.  What’s ultimately relevant to us, psychologically, is that it’s not that much of a danger to the vast majority of people.  In California, with its population of over 40 million, I learned this week the number of people under the age of 18 who died of Covid.  That number is two.  Both of them had what they described as “severe, pre-existing co-morbidities.”  In other words, they weren’t too far from dying even before they caught the coronavirus.  The average survival rate today of Covid-19 is over 99 percent.  So your chances are good, even if you do catch it.

Now imagine that Covid-19 is just a practice run to see how effective it is.  Now for the real thing—Covid-21.  Imagine that instead of a 99 percent survival rate, it has a 99 percent fatality rate, brought about by a torturously painful death.  Can you possibly imagine what measures would be taken by the government to try and contain this new strain?  I’ll leave you to think about that.  But let’s say they come up with a vaccine that is totally effective against this deadly virus in our bloodstream.  This vaccine has no suspicious elements, it comes free of charge, there are no side effects whatsoever, and it has been proven beyond a doubt that it is perfectly ethical and moral to receive this vaccine.  The whole world would be clamoring to be vaccinated and thus escape the terrible alternative.

And now, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  Covid-21 already exists.  The virus is already running through your bloodstream and mine, and it’s absolutely certain that it’s going to kill every single one of us.  And before you all run from the church screaming, following the Gospel’s advice to flee to the mountains, let me explain this parable to you.  Covid-21 has always existed.  It was created in a laboratory in the Middle East by a man-and-wife team whose appalling lack of self-discipline has resulted in the death of every person on this planet.  You see, the man’s name was Adam, and his wife was called Eve.  Single-handedly, they’ve caused the death of every single person since their original sin.  We who have survived this far are all under the sentence of death, thanks to them, and each of us in turn must face the same inevitable fate as all those who came before us.

But what about that vaccine?  Where does that play a role in this parable?  That vaccine, my friends, is the Precious Blood of our blessed Lord.  We’ve heard all the talk of platelets and antibodies that the doctors use to get rid of the coronavirus.  The Blood of Christ is the perfect antibody to the sins we have committed, the sins we dream of committing, and the sins to which we can’t seem to stop committing.  This Blood was spilled by our Lord to the very last drop on the Cross of Calvary.  It is the Blood of a God-Man, flowing inexhaustibly by means of the Sacrifice of the Mass, available to us constantly, daily, by means of the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  It won’t save us from physical death of course, but then, physical death isn’t the real problem.  Physical death is nothing to be afraid of, merely the doorway to perfect health.  You know what the Latin word for health is?  It’s salus.  And salus has two meanings in Latin.  It doesn’t just mean health.  It also means “Salvation.”  The reception of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our blessed Lord in Holy Communion restores our health and salvation.  It’s our vaccine that will surely prevent our eternal loss of that health and salvation, our spiritual death, one that is eternal, painful and beyond our worst nightmares.

You came here this morning looking for hope, for peace of mind.  I hope you will find it in this little parable.  No matter what the tribulations of this world may bring, you have the vaccine here in this church, available to you every week.  I hope this reminder will confirm you in your faith, and encourage you in your hope that we can all get through whatever the perils of this earth may put before us.  Don’t worry about them.  We have the vaccine!

So faith, check!  Hope, check!  But what about charity?  That’s where a very important question must surely now enter your minds: why isn’t the whole world clamoring for this vaccine?  Why isn’t this church filled to capacity, with thousands more outside on the street, lining up to come to the communion rail?  Here before you, or rather not before you, is the mystery of iniquity in all its awfulness.  The billions of souls who deliberately choose not to take the vaccine, to ignore the means of health and salvation provided for his children by our Father in heaven.  What can we do to help those billions of souls out of the darkness that most of them don’t even realize they’re living in?

Well, there’s only so much that can be said in one week, so I’m going to leave that thought with you until next Sunday.  For now, let’s just remember the words of our Lord, that we should “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather, we should fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  Don’t worry about any Covid-21 bugs, don’t worry about who gets which electoral votes, don’t worry about anything that is capable of harming only your physical well-being.  Keep your guard up though, when the devil comes a-knocking at your door, no matter what disguise he may take.  This is the only real danger, when Satan comes to tempt our immortal soul.  Prepare for his attacks.  Take the vaccine!