Who would have ever imagined we’d all be mandated by Big Brother to wear a mask over our face whenever we enter public places? It’s been a mandate here in my city the last couple months. I’ll wear the thing most of the time for little other reason than I’d rather throw it on when I run in the grocery store for a gallon of milk than become suspect #1 by the security guard and every other do-gooder.
Yes, I agree with my fellow trad Catholics of common sense that this corona thing is mainly about government control. I had dinner with a trad Catholic health care professional guy recently talking about this, who even thinks that the coronavirus might not even be an actual air-borne pathogen but instead a piece of RNA natural to the human body. These theories abound online, which I have decidedly refrained from delving into, sensing they are all right in their central thesis that this pandemic has been extremely distorted and manipulated by the powers-that-be.
What occupies my frontal lobe lately about all this, is what God is spiritually unfolding before our very eyes in response to our ever-darkening culture. There can be little doubt that we are in a Dark Age, and I believe that the “coronavirus pandemic” is the first wave of a great chastisement.
Abortion on demand, a militant SJW/PC movement chopping away at the foundations of western, Christian culture, an increasing culture war over identity politics, and an actual real spiritual and psychological pandemic called narcissism. The silent majority, average ordinary working class families, conservatives, Christians—these are ever more by the day oppressed by radical left ideologies that have control of most of our institutions and businesses. God is no longer tolerating this. I'm personally prepared for the next wave, probably a major economic collapse.
And so I’ve been wondering what the symbolic significance is, in the present phase of chastisement, that is what God is communicating, by allowing governments to force us to wear these dang face masks all day?
Consider what The Mask, when worn, is somewhat suppressing. It makes it harder to show off all the fake make-up most women wear, the plastic surgery, the vanity. It curtails somewhat our ability to speak, to lie, gossip, slander, and commit calumny. It makes it harder to manipulate language to dominate others. It makes it harder to overeat, commit gluttony, get drunk, do certain kinds of drugs, at least when you're having to wear The Mask. Think how many of the most common kinds of sin, that perpetuate our current narcissistic culture, emanate actually from the face and mouth.
Conclusion: even if there really is a verifiable coronavirus pandemic, and developing herd immunity through modest exposure is key, such that having to wear The Mask turns out to be a big joke played on us by Big Brother, what if it is also a divine penance? Because most of us are too preoccupied with what goes into our mouth every day. Because most of our pagan counterparts with higher status gain control by lying and manipulating, through the mouth.
I don’t like Big Brother, but I think this penance right now is a small price to pay for actively tolerating the Sodom and Gomorrah we’ve allowed our country to become.