Opinion
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April 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – As the coronavirus situation stands, things don’t look good. The virus is killing thousands of Americans (as viruses do). The economy is in free fall, hemorrhaging trillions of dollars and millions of lost jobs. The nation is saddled with debt coming from a $2.3 trillion fiscal relief package. The Fed injects an additional $2.3 trillion into the economy, buying bonds from state and local governments, and corporations. More such packages with similar price tags are in the pipeline. 

Abortion clinics and marijuana dispensaries are open as “essential” businesses. Churches are closed, and the Sacraments hardly administered in America—and most of the world.  All these developments point to medical, economic, and spiritual disasters.

Adding to our woes is the future. The liberal, secular establishment has already warned that things will not return to normal. The coronavirus crisis will “alter forever the world order,” threatens Henry Kissinger in The Wall Street Journal. We are told to be prepared to embrace a chilling post-corona future, which reads like a wish-list of everything on the liberal agenda. 

To those engaged in the fight for Christian culture, it seems that little can be done to stop this crashing disaster. Everything seems disproportionate to the means at hand. Only one factor stands outside this terrible spectacle. That factor is God.

The God factor

Yes, God is outside this threatening scene. He goes unrecognized by the scientific and political establishments at the controls of this crisis management. God does not figure into the solutions now offered by politicians and technocrats. He is told to stay out of this crisis as Church services are largely suppressed globally. Nevertheless, He is there.

His exclusion is not something new. There are times in history when the cause of the Church seems lost. All world powers are arrayed and ready to head down the road to disaster without God or the Church. They seem content to rely upon their own resources, flaunt their pride, and push their agendas. 

This crisis seems to be one of those times. 

The surprises of God 

And yet all is not lost.   

In times like these, God sometimes has His surprises that confound the designs of secular officials, scientists, and politicians. When least expected, their plans start to go wrong. The unexpected happens. 

What usually triggers the surprises of God are fervent souls that raise their voices to heaven, asking His aid. Such souls are not recorded on worldly registers but weigh heavily on heavenly scales.  

By all accounts, America should no longer have these fervent souls. As the nation on the cutting edge of modernity and the sexual revolution, they should have been wiped out long ago. Kissinger would have us embrace our secular, post-corona future enthusiastically without God.

However, despite everything, America remains a religious nation. And in this time of tribulation caused by the coronavirus crisis, many Americans are turning to God. Recent polls claim that almost half of all Americans (44%) see the coronavirus as a “wake-up call” to return to God or even as a sign of the last days. More than half of the population (55%) has prayed to God for an end to the crisis.

An ever greater uneasiness

Such movements toward God express an ever greater uneasiness with a situation that worsens daily. People are losing faith in the ability of politicians and technocrats to dominate the virus. They are confused by the media that create panic and alarm around the issue to the point that it becomes almost impossible to understand correctly and prioritize intelligently. 

The shutting down of the economy threatens to make the “cure worse than the disease.” Above all, the shuttering of the churches has led many to question why are officials “quarantining” God.   

Most people have not converted. They are not yet asking for His aid with great fervor. However, they are looking in God’s direction. With each passing day, more wonder if the solution might come from Him.    

Preparing for the surprises of God

When enough people change, the surprises of God can occur. God hears the cries of His people and can respond for their better good. God writes straight with crooked lines. Thus, His action may not be the instant resolution of the problem since suffering often brings out the best in people and unites them to God. His solutions might be different from what we imagine—and they are always much better. God hears our prayers and answers them for His greater glory and our good.

Much depends upon us in this complex scenario. We have to call upon God with sufficient zeal and sincerity. If we do our part, God will not abandon us. Indeed, God acts in history, especially in times like these. He moves when people appear helpless so that it might be clear that it was He who acted and changed the situation. Thus, we are invited to confide more in Him.

However, God can also surprise us by asking us for a great gift and sacrifice. Our love for Him must take us to the point that we convert and amend our lives, the Blessed Mother requested at Fatima. Our pleas for aid cannot take us to a return to the “normal” pre-corona gravely sinful world. We must desire a culture and society that follow God’s law. 

As the coronavirus crisis stands, things look bleak. Let us confide in the surprises of God.    

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the book Return to Order, as well as the author of hundreds of published articles. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania where he is the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.