In the Prima Secundae Partis of the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas laid down a comprehensive guide on how to live rightly as a Christian, and even more generally, simply as a human being.  Holding Aristotelian intellectualism in high regard, St. Thomas was determined to be logical in coming to conclusions about the Decalogue, free will, action, virtues, vice, and man’s ultimate end.

     St. Thomas was a Natural Law theorist. He knew that man is capable of determining what is morally right or wrong by the use of reason alone.  Through study of human nature, all people can reason toward what actions are always condusive to the common good and which ones are opposed.  St. Paul affirmed this when he said “when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law; these having not the law are a law to themselves: Who shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them” (Rom 2:14-15). It has been a proud tradition of the Catholic Church, who declares herself infallible when teaching Magisterially on morals, to  take seriously the study of the natural law. 

     Why is this important? Because when you understand the basics of natural law theory, you quickly see that doing that which is illogical is, necessarily, an affront to human nature, and thus immoral. How so?

     To distinguish between man and all other creatures, Plato pointed to man’s  ability to engage in discursive rational thinking.  Plato is often criticized as focusing too much on man’s rational abilities as the source and center for that which makes him more of a man and thus a greater partcipant in “the Good”.  One can easily read out of Plato that the most virtuous man is the wise man and the corrupt man is he who does not pursue wisdom.

     Aristotle presented a much more complete understanding of the human person and what makes a person “good”.  In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle placed more emphasis on the importance of mastering a variety of virtues.  After all, there are plenty of very wise men who can use their wisdom to do grave evil against others (as we clearly can see in our current age).  Still, Aristotle  absolutely believed that the good man uses his reason to determine right action and habitually exercises his will to do it.

     St. Thomas leaned heavily upon Aristotle, the writings of many saints before him (such as St. Augustine), the Tradition of the Church, and his own brilliance to put together his comprehensive works on the moral law.  To begin breaking down Thomas’ explanation on how one can determine the morality (or immorality) of an act, one could point to both the first questions of of speculative and practical inquiry.

     The first question of speculative inquiry is “what is it?”. The first question of practical inquiry is “what should be done?”. St. Thomas believed there was an integral connection between those two questions.  In order to know what something is, one should study what it does.  Conversely, what should be done corresponds to the nature of what is acting or what is being acted upon.  If I ask, “what should I do with a handsaw?”, I should study the nature of a handsaw.  If I misuse it, or use it in an irrational way, say to cut stone, I will break it.  If I ask “what am I to do as a human person?”, I need to reason to who I am as a human person, discover the basic human goods that I am ordered toward as such, and then respect those goods in myself and in others.  Thus, I will attain human fulfillment and happiness.  In turn, I will also advance the common good and improve my prospects for eternal life.  If I were to choose to act against reason and against my teleological ends (human fulfillment and union with the author of my human nature, God), I end up a stupid, miserable, hapless, and sinful man destined for ends other than human fulfillment and eternal communion with God. 

     Where is this all going? It’s actually quite simple: I am thoroughly disappointed in how much we as Catholics, with most of the rest of the world, have been acting ILLOGICALLY about the Covid-19 virus and corresponding restrictions over the last 11 months.  At this point, most of us are quite aware of how cooked the numbers are.  Here are a couple of questions to stimulate some exercise in reason: if elective surgeries, where hospitals get most of their revenue from, are temporarily suspended, and there is a financial incentive from Medicare to diagnose patients as Covid positive ($13,000) and mark death certificates as Covid related ($39,000), what is going to happen to the Covid numbers?  Where did all of the cases of flu go this year? Here is a question related to the “solution” we have been offered that still yields no relief: if a virus has a 99.8% recovery rate, how much more effective will a vaccine be?

     Let’s talk more about the vaccine, shall we?  This Covid-19 vaccine has been rushed to production and distribution in record time, even though there has never been a successful vaccine made for the corona-virus before.  Adverse effects from this vaccine have piled up since early in its distribution, and Pfizer has issued a warning that you should avoid procreative activity for 28 days after receiving their vaccine.  We have no idea what the long term side effects are of taking this vaccine and you are part of the clinical trials if you choose to take it.  Nevertheless, you are being told from the Pope down that you are being charitable if you take this vaccine.  WRONG!  You are not being charitable if you wear an oxygen inhibiting mask, avoid hugging people from now until eternity, or get this highly experimental vaccine.  You are being ILLOGICAL!

     You are under no moral obligation to do something which is highly illogical.  Before the Pope has authority to give pastoral advice, God has authority over the eternal law, which natural law participates in and right reason obeys.  If a child is asked by his father to do something highly illogical, he does not violate the 4^th commandment when he disobeys, rather he honors the 8^th commandment: THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS!

      If I know that all of society is living by lies at this time, and I still wear a dehumanizing face mask and throw people elbow bumps instead of hugs and handshakes, what message am I conveying to those around me?  Am I not a denying the truth? I understand that some are bending to the rules at work that require them to wear masks. That’s one thing.  Bending to such rules in order to protect your primary vocation to serve your family through maintaining your livelihood is certainly defensible.  Accepting someone else's act of violence upon you is not necessarily you proclaiming the efficacy of such a thing.  But for goodness sake (literally), can you at least help us all by standing for the truth at the grocery store?  At church?  At a restaurant?

      If a recent CNN article about how we must all stay masked forever and just accept this hard cold “new normal” is at all predicative, then please understand what price we pay if we decide to live by illogic and lies.  Eleven months of “I know it’s garbage, but I’m willing to play the game until this is over” hasn’t gotten you out of this society of lies.  Rather, when we see this new campaign pushing now for DOUBLE MASKING, we must realize that living by these lies has made it worse.  And it will get even worse.

     You have it in you to do what is rational. You have it in you to stand for the truth.  In fact, it’s been written into your human nature by God Himself and is the moral thing to do.  You can do this, you were made for this, and God will bless you for your honor and your courage.

 

God bless.

 

Gadfly