A Letter to CUSANs
Not too long ago, Healthline reported, “Researchers found that protection against any COVID-19 infection declined for all vaccine types, with overall vaccine protection declining from 87.9 percent in February to 48.1 percent by October 2021.” Then the Wall Street Journal reported, “The total number of reported deaths linked to the disease topped 770,800…. This puts the pandemic … total at more than twice the 385,343 Covid-19 deaths recorded last year.” How is one to respond? Few do what Jesus warns against— becoming “drowsy from … drunkenness.” At CVS, people stand on the safe-distance markers! But what about Jesus’ warning against being so filled with the anxieties of daily life that, instead of praying to God for the strength to do what is right, one does no more than obey commands: “Get the vaccine, keep a social distance, wear a mask, wash your hands, and don’t touch your face.” What about doing spiritual things as well as these physical ones? One way is to make a good judgment of conscience. “Faith,” who lives alone and is in her eighties, judges in conscience that she must get the vaccine not only to not jeopardize someone else when going to church but also to not get sick. She lives alone. Who would take care of her? “Hope,” whose circumstances are that she has read much about the vaccines, found that their testing period, though of thousands, was only for six months after taking the vaccine. Meanwhile, the diseases of myocarditis and pericarditis have shown up in some of the vaccinated, but other diseases could as well. So she judged in conscience and chose not to get the vaccine. The circumstances she necessarily addressed were (1) finding a doctor who would treat her so she would not need Winter | 2021-2022
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