God, why are you punishing us?

For my final year as a Deacon, before ordination to the sacred priesthood, I was sent to the parish of St. Mary Magdalen's, Wandsworth East Hill. There I completed my formation under the august tutelage of Canon Martin Edwards. It was in this parish that I offered my first Mass, and it will always have a special place in my heart.

I mention this, partly as an excuse to share some of the new professional photos of the occasion (the rest available here), which have recently been given to me, but also because an esteemed parishioner from St. Mary Magdalen's has recently written to me with some questions about a lecture given by Roberto de Mattei, the video and text of which can be found here.

The gist of Mattei's argument is that the Church is missing the fact that the current Coronavirus should be understood as a chastisement coming from God.

He quotes, critically, an unnamed Bishop as saying:

"One thing is certain: this virus was not sent by God to punish sinful humanity. It is an effect of nature, treating us as a stepmother. But God faces this phenomenon with us and probably will make us understand, in the end, that humanity is one single village."

Mattei takes issue with this, firstly with the idea of the world as a 'single village' and then the use of 'stepmother' to describe nature which he associates with the 'religion of nature', perhaps a la 'Greta Thurnberg' [sic].  But he goes further in contradicting the Bishop when he says:

"God, who is the first cause above all of all that exists always makes use of secondary causes in order to effect his plans. Whoever has a supernatural spirit does not stop at the superficial level of things, but seeks to understand the hidden design of God that is at work beneath the apparently blind force of nature."

It is important to think through, quite carefully the implications of what Mattei is saying, because the way in which we understand the current crisis, theologically, will profoundly shape our image of God, and consequently the way in which we relate to him.

The argument being advanced by Mattei is that God, secondarily wills Coronavirus as a collective punishment for human sin. It is not his primary will - He is not a God who takes pleasure in human suffering for its own sake. But, as a Father, God wills to punish us now, because our sins have warranted it and they demand, in justice, some form of correction.

The first major problem with is this is the injustice with which the punishment falls. Are the old more guilty for sin than the young? Are rich countries less culpable? Imran Khan, this week, said that in Pakistan they simply cannot do the things we are doing in the west to fight coronavirus, because they are too poor. What does it say about God, if in punishing humanity, he lays his hand most heavily on the weak and the poor?

The second concern would be the effectiveness of this punishment. Whilst Coronavirus may have some effect in causing some people to turn again to God, I don't think there is any evidence, yet, of a mass return (no pun intended). Covid-19 is unlikely to be the turning point for Christianity in Western Europe; and, contrary to the unnamed Bishop's hopes, I would be very surprised if the outcome of this year is that we all have a greater sense of humanity as a 'single village'. Rather, I suspect we will see a rise of nationalism, and states seeking to put their own interests ever more to the fore. If this crisis is willed by God as a punishment or a correction, it is likely to be a pretty ineffective one.

And so if we take this understanding of the crisis to heart, we will be left with an image of God as fairly reactionary figure, who lashes out in punishment and is impotent in His corrections.

So where is God in this Crisis?

When all is said and done, I am certain that we will find the fingerprints of mankind all over this terrible catastrophe. Most likely, this virus will have emerged from the production of food in unsanitary conditions, made for people who are too poor to afford better; living, as the do, at the sharp of the iniquitous economic systems, which we have built. It is, I think, probable, that an authoritarian and dictatorial regime will have chosen to keep the early spread of the disease covered up - rather than warn the rest of the world, or ask for help - in order to try and save face and security. And one suspects that a number of people at the beginning will have chosen to continue with travel plans, suppressing or ignoring feelings that they might well have the virus. In the end, like all the troubles of the world, Coronavirus is a result of the outworking of human sin.

And whilst God may not like it, He has far too much respect for human freedom, to interfere with the choices we have made.

But... that doesn't mean He is impassive, or that He does not care. As the Bishop says, God does face this phenomenon with us and alongside us. On the Cross, the Son of God chose to acquaint Himself with utter depths of the human experience, and in doing so sanctified that experience, making it holy and salvific. Such that, just as the Cross of our Lord became the instrument of salvation for the whole world, so too, the crises which we live through can become the means of our sanctification and salvation.

God waits for you and for me amidst this time of trial, brothers and sisters. If we are prepared to come to Him, to give Him our worries & fears, our unsteady hope and, yes, even our hearts, He will take them. He will take our hearts and through means of this time of worry and fear He will purify them a little more of our attachment to this fallen sinful world, and establish them in a firmer hope of His kingdom to come.

If we search for God in this time, we will find Him very close - a tender father and a loving friend. And while God has no desire for the suffering we are experiencing today, if even one more soul comes to know Him as such, now and forever, perhaps in ways only He can see, it will all have been worth it.