Archbishop Francisco Moreno Barrón of Tijuana, on the border of Mexico and the United States, reported January 6 that he “remarkably improved” from Covid-19, which he had contracted after undergoing a prostate surgery and put him in danger of death.
In his statement, Archbishop Moreno Barrón said he will continue, “with some care for my operation to stay at home, waiting for a negative Covid-19 test result.”
He said he will also continue to “take care of my immune system and the lung fields that were affected.”
The Mexican archbishop thanked everyone “for their valuable prayers, which strengthened me, and for all their messages, which I could not answer in my isolation also from social networks.”
“As your archbishop, I want to be in the best physical condition to continue walking together, proclaiming that Christ lives risen in our midst and giving a new face of the Church in the midst of our society,” he said.
“I express to all my love as a father and pastor and I bless you always,” he concluded.
Four bishops and more than 120 priests have died in Mexico from COVID-19. Nine other Mexican bishops have tested positive, and most have recovered or are making favorable progress….
The above comes from a Jan. 7 story on the site of the Catholic News Agency.
“Christ lives risen in our midst” start to sound like pious but empty words, given all that has happened. Point to him. Show me. Medicine and technology healed that bishop, not Christ. I want to touch the wounds in the risen Christ’s hands and side and see with my own eyes. I stand with Thomas the Apostle. I stand with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: cheap grace doesn’t cut it anymore. I’ll pay the cost of discipleship if someone can show me it’s worth it, if someone can show me where God is working today, that trusting in his promises isn’t futile; point me to examples living today of authentic holiness and the power of God to transform lives. I don’t see it in the clergy nor the laity. I don’t see it in parishes. I don’t see it anywhere. I see a dying church. What I see are frauds and empty miters who are more political than spiritual, more comfortable than courageous.
Kevin T
I’m sure your sentiments are well-meant. I share all your exasperation and your
standing with Bonhoeffer’s dismissal of “cheap grace”. The “grace” he himself
exemplified was the polar opposite of “cheap”, God rest his noble soul.
But I ask this: Will God’s Bonhoeffer-like grace come to any of us
if we condition it on God’s acting exactly in the way we demand, and right now,
and through only shepherds each of us might deem sufficiently worthy? I wonder
instead if that path leads, at best, to the “cheap grace” Bonhoeffer deplores.
Poor Kevin T. Well, there have been far worse historical periods, for our Church, on earth. St. Francis of Assisi lived in one of those bad eras. Christ spoke to St. Francis in his famous vision, at San Damiano, and told him, “Francis, rebuild My Church.” And he did. Well, Kevin, it sounds like you are going through a “dark night.” But don’t give up. Remember, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you…” (St. Matthew, Chpt. 7) Martyrs who shed their blood willingly for Christ — like Dietrich Bonhoeffer– were in deep, loving union with Our Lord, they were far beyond any need of “proofs.” I am sure God will eventually speak to you, Kevin, and give you a good answer, if you persist enough, in your prayers.
Christ lives risen in our midst in the Eucharist.
We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God “face to face”, will we fully know the ways by which – even through the dramas of evil and sin – God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest for which he created heaven and earth. CCC314
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. 1Cor 13:12
So… you are looking for the Merciful Savior? What about the Just Judge?
Doesn’t our Catholic faith require us to believe God is both?
Yes it does.
Look for the people who aren’t finding fault with others, only themselves. They are rare. Look among the poor, Kevin T. Do missionary work. You will find them.
I recall many long years ago, in college, reading Bonhoeffer’s famous book, The Cost of Discipleship and many other wonderful books, for some excellent courses– but I and my friends were brought to tears, because of the horrific cruelty of the Nazis, killing the Jews and thousands of our good priests– I couldn’t stand the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe, either. Lots of tears to shed, at all of this. The Spanish Civil War martyrs, before that, were a real tearjerker, too. Spain’s Catholic heritage was extremely destroyed, during the Spanish Civil War, and was never fully rebuilt– even to this very day, today. It hurt a lot too, the brutal deaths of great artists and intellectuals, like the poet, Lorca (Lorca was killed because he was gay). Thousands of priests, bishops, seminarians, nuns, and Catholic laymen were brutally executed. And the Mexican Cristeros, with many fine martyrs, and many religious orders of nuns bravely escaping to the U.S.! I talked with some of them, quite elderly by that time– they endured a horrific nightmare. Many of these martyrs are now saints of the Church– but to know the horrific cruelty they endured for the Faith, makes you cry out in pain. Why, God, why? Well, God is with us all, in good times and bad! St. Josemaria Escriva was blessed to narrowly escape being killed, as a Catholic priest, during the Spanish Civil War. His “Opus Dei” was founded, and spread, worldwide. After WWII, the famous Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism, and took the Christian name of “Eugenio,” in honor of Pope Pius XII– that was his birth name. God worked a miracle in his life! God is still with us, always, His people, just as He promised. Our Christian martyrs endure torment and murder daily, today, for Christ, worldwide– because they love and adore Him, and know it is only Him that they live for– and die for. Only Christ!