Of Viruses and Vices

"Invidia," by Giotto di Bondone,
Scrovegni Chapel, Padua

Among the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of Knowledge which, St Thomas Aquinas tells us, equips Christians to interpret the world in the light of eternity.  He says,

Right judgment about creatures belongs properly to knowledge. Now it is through creatures that man's aversion from God is occasioned, according to Wis. 14:11: "Creatures... are turned to an abomination... and a snare to the feet of the unwise," of those, namely, who do not judge aright about creatures, since they deem the perfect good to consist in them. Hence they sin by placing their last end in them, and lose the true good. It is by forming a right judgment of creatures that man becomes aware of the loss (of which they may be the occasion), which judgment he exercises through the gift of knowledge (S.th., 2a2ae, q. 9, art. 4, resp.).

For this reason, St Thomas corresponds Knowledge to that Beatitude "Blessed are those who mourn..." because the things of the world are known to be an occasion to turn away from God.  The Spirit-filled believer, on seeing her or his attachment to the world then mourns in repentance which ultimately yields the reward of the Third Beatitude, "for they shall be comforted."

In a roundabout way, then, the gift of Knowledge allows us to observe worldly goings-on outside of ourselves (but always for our spiritual welfare!) in order to know where the Christian struggle (or ascesis--where the word "asceticism" derives) lies.

And so, applying the gift of Knowledge, I see in the actions of many Christians with regard to the SARS-cov-2 virus, several clear mirror-images of certain vices.

How COVID-19 Spreads

From this morning's edition of the National Public Radio comes a surprising instance of its usefulness and, more surprisingly, encouraging news about the coronavirus:  

If a person infected with the coronavirus sneezes, coughs or talks loudly, droplets containing particles of the virus can travel through the air and eventually land on nearby surfaces. But the risk of getting infected from touching a surface contaminated by the virus is low, says Emanuel Goldman, a microbiologist at Rutgers University.

The article goes on to explain that the "viruses" discovered on surfaces were in fact corpses of the virus, and that surface transmission of COVID-19 remains relatively low.  Thus, the expenditure and effort in disinfecting walls and tables is deemed to be an "overkill."

What spreads the virus, rather, are projectiles emanating from an infected person's mouth or nose and contacting another person's.  This is why elevators, large crowds, and poorly-ventilated spaces are especially ideal places for the transmission of this species of pneumonia.

What Else Spreads Death Via Airborne Projectiles?

This morning I was having a conversation with my sister about a particularly difficult set of people she had to work with in her business, which turned into a general conversation about toxic language transmitted through social media.  "Facebook gives people power," she observed, since one can safely hide behind the relative anonymity of a digital profile and shackle other people with slander, gossip, and misinformation.

I then shared three Scriptures with my sister, three Bible passages that speaks directly to the vices of slander, gossip, and misinformation.  The first comes from Our Lord Jesus Christ:

"I tell you, on the Day of Judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Mt 12:35-36).

Each of us will face judgment twice, the first at our "Particular Judgment" whereby we "stand before the judgment-seat of Christ" (2 Cor 5:10) immediately after death (Heb 9:27) to learn our eternal fate--whether it be of eternal beatitude or eternal loss.  In the above passage of Matthew 12:35-36, however, Jesus points out that our words will be accountable at the "General Judgment," that is, when the whole human race stands before Him in the Valley of Decision (cf  Joel 3:14) and we will see how the short span of our lives helped to write the narrative of human history.  It is in that context that we will see how our words--or silence--contributed to the advancement of the Kingdom of God, or to its detriment.  It is there that the entire human race will see either the honest or dishonest value of what we have said or left unsaid.  Hence, as the Lord Jesus said, "...for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known" (Mt 10:26; cf Lk 8:17).

In other words, like the coronavirus, our words have the power of spreading death, only it is a deadlier strain because, left unrepented, it can effect a spiritual death.

Another verse comes from St James, "The Brother of the Lord" and sometime Bishop of Jerusalem.  Early in the epistle, he wrote, "If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain" (Jas 1:26).  As much as I hate to say it, much of the slander, gossip, and misinformation I read on Facebook comes from particularly devout Catholics.

St James goes on to write--

And the tongue is a fire.  The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell.  For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue--a restless evil, full of deadly poison (Jas 3:6-8).

The Lord's brother (the ancient Semites had no specific word for "half-brother" or "cousin") tells us that the fire unleashed by the tongue comes from "hell"--because it is where the "deceiver of the whole world" (Apoc 12:9) has been cast, whom Jesus said "is a liar and the father of lies" (Jn 8:44).

A half-truth is still a lie.  Recall that in the Garden of Eden, Satan twisted the words of God by insisting that our First Parents wouldn't really die if they ate the forbidden fruit.  By stating a half-truth, he meant that they wouldn't die immediately and, at that very moment, wouldn't die physically.  By distorting God's words, Adam and Eve were deceived, and thus wreaked havoc on the whole world.

St James further highlights the irony that animals can be tamed and trained but it is next to impossible to tame and train the tongue.  The image of "poison" is especially telling, since it usually takes only a few drops of lethal substance to turn any drink deadly.

Along the lines of St James' image of words getting out of control comes a passage from the Psalmist:

           They set their mouths against the heavens,
           and their tongue struts through the earth (Ps 73:9)

The Greek version of the text--the Septuagint--reads:

            They have set their mouth against heaven,
            and their tongue roveth in the earth (Ps 72:9).

Since God is "Father" because he generates "the Word" which is his "Only-Begotten Son" who creatively fashioned the cosmos (cf Ps 33:6) and fulfills the divine purpose (Is 55:10-11), the misuse of human words and human speech is a mockery of the indwelling Trinity, after whose "image and likeness" we were created and whom Christians are given the grace to imitate.  By the use of lying words, we do not imitate God but rather parody God, and instead of issuing a creative word, we unleash a destructive word.  As St Thomas à Kempis began his classic The Imitation of Christ, "What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity?"

And by this destructive word 'strutting' or 'roving' over the earth we are given the image of something that is both defiant ("struts") and eludes recapture ("roveth").

The vices of the tongue is very much like COVID-19.  It is highly contagious when it is airborne; a careless person can be held accountable for their culpability for spreading it; even after it causes death, it can still persist.

At the heart of a person's refusal to be prudent and to exercise the corresponding gift of Counsel in "flattening the curve" is an utter and gross lack of charity--and at the root of every vice is precisely uncharitableness.

The Toxicity of Social Media

The whole of 2020 has shown social media--especially Facebook--to be a dumpster fire whose flames leap onto nearby buildings.  Unfounded accusations, baseless conspiracy guesses (and I stress guesses), and deliberate misinformation are spreading like uncontrolled fires.  For weeks now, I have seen posts promising "details next Monday" about the election, or third-party hearsay about nefarious shenanigans being done at hospitals, or false captioning of photos as "evidence" of Deep State goings-on.

Now, do not misunderstand me.  I am fully aware of a number of eminently silly books and articles called The Great Reset published by various authors and that there are dimwitted politicians who think it's a good idea.  I am also fully aware of serious difficulties in the Church, which Prof Dr Ralph Martin of Sacred Heart Major Seminary has outlined in his recent and worthwhile Crisis in the Church:  Pathways Forward.  Above all, I am especially cognizant of this paragraph 676 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

But we can never advance the cause of Christ by throwing spaghetti to see what sticks.  In fact, we are detrimental to the cause of Christ by misusing human language, because it tarnishes our credibility.  When the time comes to speak shocking truths, who will believe the Church, if we've exhibited a pattern of lying?

What I find especially troublesome--and I pointed this out in my article in Grandin Media earlier this year--is how many "orthodox" Catholics think that being doctrinally sound excuses vice, as if being right can substitute the need to be holy, or at least that holiness has more to do with thinking than behaving.

Yesterday, a couple of supposedly "orthodox" Catholic believers made a snide remark about The Queen's annual Christmas speech by pretending theological expertise and taking issue with Her Majesty naming Jesus as her "inner light."  One conversant asked, "What heresy is this?"--an allusion to the founder of Quakerism, George Fox.  Then another conversant suggested that Elizabeth II was, perhaps, a "Rosicrucian," that is, a New Ager.

Clearly, these people, instead of "rejoicing in the Truth" as demanded by theological charity (1 Cor 13:6) took issue with the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.  Ignoring Her Majesty's boldness in repeating the Name of Jesus--which was unusually frequent given the history of her annual Christmas Speech--these two Facebook interlocutors decided to play Amateur Grand Inquisitor.

I have seen much of the same dynamic at work by some Catholic believers who--in total disregard of St Cyril of Jerusalem--attack bishops for the temporary suspension of Communion on the tongue and accusing these same bishops of "depriving" them of the Eucharist.  Perhaps they are better off not receiving Communion on the tongue if, with their tongues, they lie.

When St Thomas Aquinas composed his Summa theologiae, it was not without reason that a huge chunk of it--the Second Part of the Second Part--was given over to a labourous discussion of the virtues, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and Beatitudes.  By bridging his discussion God as Creator and Trinity (First Part) and Christ in His Person and Sacraments (Second Part) with a detailed exploration of the "life in the Holy Spirit," he certainly means to tell us that "orthodoxy" gives glory to God not only by believing rightly but also by acting supernaturally.  In point of fact--and speaking as a professional Thomist--being doctrinally sound but unvirtuous exhibits a deep wound in the human soul in desperate need of pastoral therapy that cannot be cured by a quick confession.

St Thomas explains that vices such as "reviling," "backbiting," "derision," "tale-bearing" are all sins against the virtue of justice and, by extension, against the Holy Spirit's gift of Piety (S.th. 2a2ae, qq. 72-75).  Do we not backbite our friends and family members for holding different opinions?  Do we not deride public officials with memes and GIFs?  Do we not engage in tale-bearing when we repeat unsubstantiated "news"?  And is not Facebook a convenient way to do this?

Stop it.

Conclusion

As I've said countless times, the "Church at Ephesus" in the Apocalypse of St John was commended by the Lord for holding to true doctrine, but remonstrated for their lack of charity, which is at the root of all vices:

"I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false; I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my Name's sake, and you have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember then from what you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first.  If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent" (Apoc 2:2-5).

Here, the Lord Jesus commended the Ephesian Christians for their doctrinal soundness and testing the validity of some people's claim to apostleship.  But He also takes issue with their lack of charity to the point that such uncharitableness has the power to 'cancel' one's orthodoxy (and, equally, one's heterodoxy cannot be compensated by charity; cf v. 5). 

A vicious Christian is far more contagious than a person infected with coronavirus because they incur spiritual death, spread spiritual death, and obstruct the mission of the Church by giving counter-witness to Christ.

What we need, rather, is to be aware that the vices of the tongue are spread in very much the same way as COVID-19, and instead of disinfecting surfaces, we need to disinfect our hearts with the grace of the Holy Spirit, "For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Mt 10:34).