The gentleman (I will call him Willis) is someone I have known for a bit under 50 years. We met in kindergarten and went to school together through 8th grade. We reconnected about five years ago through Social Media. He sought me out because he felt out of touch with so many of our classmates because he is still practicing the Faith to the best of his ability. He was pleased to see I am as well.
Willis is very freaked out by the pandemic. He has a lot of fear and has found himself sucked into the vortex of different conspiracy theories flooding the internet. He saw my tongue in cheek (but kind - he mentioned how shocked he was at how darn kind I had been) post on FB about the various 10-days-of-darkness-bio-warfare-martial-law-usconstitution-TomHanksIsaPedophile-Disney-is-in-on-it-too theories currently being touted by people on various social media sites.
Willis is a ProLife Catholic and a Trump Supporter. He is very proud of being a Trump Supporter though he is extremely polite to those people (like me!) who will not vote for Mr. Trump and now vote 3rd Party. We have never had a cross word when it comes to politics.
Last night, apparently after several glasses of a good scotch, Willis called me because he is honestly frightened by much of what conspiracy theorists are screaming about, in particular the following:
- The Government is keeping secrets from us
- Martial Law is about to be declared
- Forced Vaccinations are a done deal
- The guidelines currently being issued are designed for us to just give up our rights as Americans
To his credit, Willis does not think Tom Hanks lied about having Covid-19 because he is part of a Hollywood group of pedophiles that all belong to Club 33 at Disneyland. Like me he is old enough to remember when that whole Club 33 first surfaced and regards that particular twist to today's stuff in the same way most intelligent people regard the writings attributed to the Elders of Zion.
He also laughed about the Ten Days of Darkness thing and wondered out loud if the people posting about that were now upset that social media was up and running and nothing they predicted was going to happen had happened.
Willis' main concern is the idea of losing our rights under the US Constitution and whether or not the government is positioning itself to take over every aspect of our lives.
As we talked, I had the chance to ask him if he had decided that Mr. Trump was not to be trusted after all and his immediate response was, "Hell, no. Trump 2020, that's me!". Well then, I pondered, why is he so convinced that the government he heads is about to descend upon his household like locust?
I mean, he is not saying that the Democrats are planning a military coup. He is talking about vague threats being carried out by The Government all the while pledging his undying loyalty to the Commander in Chief of that same Government. It's not like I'm the one calling him in fear of Donald Trump trying to take over as dictator and using our military to do so; rather it is Willis calling me afraid of the government his candidate leads.
I don't get it.
And apparently, after I stated it that way he didn't get it either.
See here's the thing; in order for something to be a sexy and scary internet conspiracy we the people have got to be willing to suspend our belief system, put our brains in quarantine and not ask obvious questions. And if we are the type that, like me and Willis, claim Christianity as our Faith Tradition, we have got to put that on hold too in order for these dark theories to resonate. We cannot scream, "It's Biblical!" because, well, everything in the world is Biblical to us. We look at everything through the eyes of Faith and, by so doing, we are never truly frightened. We don't need to tell you all how much smarter we are, how we know everything that is REALLY happening because we are absolutely confident that we don't - and we won't until we die or get to see Jesus come again.
It hits me hard on Good Friday how many good and loving people are really scared right now. I think back on how the Apostles felt and how only one was brave enough to withstand his fear, put it aside and be of service to the Woman, the Mother of God. St John, youngest of the lot, had the guts to put his arm around the Woman and walk with her to the foot of the cross.
St Peter himself, the man holding the keys to the kingdom, denied Our Lord not once, not twice but three times. The others scattered, afraid for their lives and confused about what was happening.
Later these same men would be willing to lose their own lives in order to preach The Truth.
So if in fact the Apostles of Jesus suffered from fear and trembling, why would we be any different?
Willis was laughing by the end of the phone call. I hope I was able to offer him some comfort. I think he felt a little better because he had to admit that the best part of all this stuff were the number of people who posted about MARSHALL LAW.
Have a safe and Blessed Easter, everyone. May the Peace of Christ fill your hearts and push the fear aside.
May we all be St John today.....
No comments:
Post a Comment