Tuesday, June 30th, 2020

“Does misfortune come to a city if the Lord has not sent it?” Sobering words in a time of pandemic. Yet it would be wrong to ignore them and simply say the pandemic is a natural occurrence alien to the providence of God. Of course the pandemic might have had natural origins - yet there is no natural origin of anything outside God’s will and providence. And there is no question the Lord has reason to punish us - especially in the Western world, where he has been so generous to us, and we have been so ungrateful to him, by not acknowledging what we owe him, by not sharing generously what we have with the poorer around us - and by the serious evils our societies have been racing to embrace, not the least being ending the lives of innocent fragile young people in the womb who have not yet even had the chance to choose and live. May this time be an opportunity for all of us to reflect on our sins, repent, and live better lives.