I love Aesop's Fables.  They truly are timeless gems reminding us that our ancestors serve us with their wisdom even today .  One of my favorites is the story of the "Wolf and the Crane".  Where am I going with this?  Be patient and read to the end.  I promise you will be hansomly rewarded:

A Wolf had been feasting too greedily, and a bone had stuck crosswise in his throat. He could get it neither up nor down, and of course he could not eat a thing. Naturally that was an awful state of affairs for a greedy Wolf.  So away he hurried to the Crane. He was sure that she, with her long neck and bill, would easily be able to reach the bone and pull it out.

“I will reward you very handsomely,” said the Wolf, “if you pull that bone out for me.”

The Crane, as you can imagine, was very uneasy about putting her head in a Wolf’s throat. But she was grasping in nature, so she did what the Wolf asked her to do.  When the Wolf felt that the bone was gone, he started to walk away.

“But what about my reward!” called the Crane anxiously.

“What!” snarled the Wolf, whirling around. “Haven’t you got it? Isn’t it enough that I let you take your head out of my mouth without snapping it off?”

Moral: Expect no reward for serving the wicked.

     Throughout the first Covid lock down, through this mandatory masking phase, this directional shopping era, and as we get closer to a possible new lock down and (gasp) a mandated vaccine, I have told close friends and family, "Do not be the Crane!"   It is one thing to stay couped up in your home, wear a mask in your car, and tremble as someone extends a hand for a shake because you are actually afraid of Covid-19 (praying you find peace if this is you).  It's quite another to comply with all of these mandates simply because you are afraid of what will happen if you do not comply (praying you find courage if this is you).

     St. Thomas Aquinas is quite clear about the purpose of human law in the Prima Secundae of the Summa Theologiae.  He says that all just human law participates in the natural law and is in accord with right reason.  Therefore, if a law is to have any authority, it must promote the common good and must work to help citizens be fulfilled in their human nature.  When we go along with human laws that we know do not make sense, are dehumanizing, and destroy our society in it's capacity to live prosperously and freely, we get it backwards; instead of living with laws that serve the common good, the common collective lives to serve the law.  And when that happens, the only ones who are ultimately served are those imposing such unconsitiutional and unjust laws.  By definition, those people are known as tyrants.

     Every time I walk into the store without my mask on, it's inconvenient that I have to tell the man at the door that I'm free not to wear one.  In my vanity, I even have uncomfortable moments where I feel the cold stares from the half hidden faces and worry, "what do they think of me?"  But the wolf does not deserve my service in removing the bone from his throat.  And I'm smarter than to do it.  The more bones we take out of the throats of our tyrants, the longer these wolves stick around.  And if we do not boldy tell the wolves that we do not serve the wicked, they will continue to lurk around in the shadows growing bigger and more fearless as they wait to lock us down and harm us worse than before.  

     Below is a link to a petition that will be sent to our good Bishop Thomas Olmsted urging him to resist closing our churches down again in the event of a second stay-at-home order.  Don't be a crane, be a man and share this with as many men as you know who will speak the message with us that we will serve only the one true Lord present in the Holy Eucharist at His altar.

God bless.

-Gadfly

https://www.petitions.net/laity_against_lock_downs#form