O Salutaris Hostia and the banal Covid regulations
Blog post by Fr. David Muscat
That afternoon, I witnessed the very same people I saw in church being vociferous, waving partisan flags, without any face masks, packed together like sardines, and no hand sanitizers in sight. On this occasion they came out for a party-political activity in view of the impending general elections.
We humans play a lot of games, but not God. He who sees what is hidden in the heart knows that He is being assailed and denied by the so-called faithful. It is futile and useless at this juncture to complain to the Maltese religious authorities about this blatant hypocrisy shown by the Maltese people because contrary to what St. Peter said “we need to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5: 29), they would reply that: “We need to maintain good relations with the state.”
In the current climate, small wonder that we will not fight for the baby in the womb, for the defense of religious freedom, for our religious cultural identity and the respect of life from birth to natural death. Indeed, the omens do not appear auspicious. When in 2021, the current Prime Minister lectured that he is in favour of a discussion over euthanasia, not a peep was heard. A few days ago, the Leader of the Opposition said he too was in favour of this public debate. Previously, he stated that he was even open to a public discussion on abortion. Again, our religious leaders chose silence over truth and pastoral zeal.
We Maltese fight, indeed we do, only to maintain good relations with the state. In doing this, we show that we are capable only of making paper bullets. Naturally if Malta’s religious leaders choose truth, they would lose the government funds for the restoration of the parapet, the church facade and the public illumination of our church domes. Noteworthy is the fact when the European Gay Pride will be officially “celebrated” in our country, the largest basilica in Malta most probably will be lit by the lights of the rainbow. And we’ll tell the faithful that this “beautification” is reminiscent of Noah’s rainbow. Or perhaps we will lay the blame at the Pope’s door. Alternatively, we could state that this is no fault of ours, as such an event falls under the existing contract with the lighting company. Clearly, what is sacrosanct, again, is to obey men rather than God.
Let us conveniently forget that for two consecutive years Maltese Christians were denied their basic human right to celebrate what is most dear to them namely Holy Week. Instead of thanking God that that those dreadful days are finally over, we have agreed to alter the date of the procession of Our Lady of Sorrows merely, once again, to please the State, on spurious grounds of so-called public health and safety. Does God have any rights left in this country? At this rate, any evangelization in “Catholic” Malta will exist to promote the secular state instead of God.
The early leading Christians were exemplary citizens but they never burned incense to worship the emperor. For this, they were martyred by crucifixion and fire and were torn to pieces by lions … Today, centuries later, we restore their statues in our half-empty churches with the money given to us by the modern-day Maltese government emperors to burn incense not to Jesus Christ but to them.
For how much longer will we mock and vilify the Blessed Sacrament? Our lack of faith in Him is evident in these gestures, because ‘’whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.’’ (Luke 16,10).
Young people are seeing that our deeds openly contradict the words we utter when we say we believe. Indeed, verba movent exempla trahunt: words move but example resonates far more. Why on earth should we clergymen be surprised if our words have become irrelevant? How do we want young people to believe us when they see such blatant hypocrisy? But the most unbelievable thing is when they hear us say that we are cooperating with the authorities, even if the same authorities do not, themselves, abide by the regulations which they imposed. Ora mai, we all know that these public health conserving “regulations” are banal at the extreme, and that our population has had enough of them.
Young people and anyone with his head screwed on correctly know full well that when we continue to insult the Blessed Sacrament using public health and safety as a pretext, we are not cooperating with the state authorities. Rather, we are cooperating with the masonic apron-wearing authorities pulling the strings of priests and politicians (this isn’t Adrianus Koster). Maybe our spiritual leaders themselves know this and either their hands are tied, or they are trying to negotiate something, or they are being threatened. Worse still, they themselves may want this public mockery of God because like them, they adore the great architect of the universe and not the humble carpenter of Nazareth made flesh and present till the end of times through the Blessed Sacrament because the Lord commanded us: “Do this in memory of me” (1 Corinthians, 11: 24).
If we Maltese continue down this perilous path, faith and trust will end up so diminished that even the people of goodwill, especially the young, would eventually loose faith in those men that claim that the incarnate God is made present on our blessed altars. That is how the enemy of God destroys the Church ‘’From Within’’.
Pope John Paul the Great told us: Non abbiate paura! We must not be afraid or discouraged. There is nothing hidden that cannot be revealed. Through the abundant graces of Our Lady, this deception will be unmasked and then, the day will come when we can all stand together in our places of worship without masks, sanitizers or temperature-control kits and utter in unison: May the most holy and divine Sacrament be praised and worshipped, now and forever.