WHEN COVID-19 began to spread beyond China’s borders and churches began to close, there was a period over 2-3 weeks that I personally found overwhelming, but for reasons different than most. Suddenly, like a thief in the night, the days I had been writing about for fifteen years were upon us. Over those first weeks, many new prophetic words came and deeper understandings of what has already been said—some which I’ve written, others I hope to soon. One “word” that troubled me was that the day was coming when we would all be required to wear masks, and that this was part of Satan’s plan to continue to dehumanize us.
And what progress this plan of dehumanization has made! It culminated this century with atheism, which divorced our generation from the truth that we are made in God’s image. Second, through evolutionism, which divorced us from our rightful place in creation. Third, through radical feminism and the sexual revolution, which divorced the soul from the body. Fourth, through gender ideology, which divorced our bodies from their biological sex. Fifth, through individualism and the technological revolution, which divorced us from each other. And now, the last stage before the anticipated “final evolution” of mankind takes place (transhumanism, which will integrate technology within our bodies): totalitarianism, which is divorcing us from freedom itself.
For freedom Christ set us free… (Galatians 5:1)
The end result is that we have been essentially reduced to nothing more than fatherless, genderless, and now soon, faceless subjects who can be easily corralled, numbered, and manipulated to serve the “father of lies.”
A WORD ON THE SCIENCE
The point of this article is not to debate the science of wearing masks. So, for an exhaustive review of the medical literature and dozens of peer-reviewed published studies that show questionable benefit to wearing masks and even serious harm and increased risks of getting COVID-19, read Unmasking the Facts. In summary:
Though CDC’s policy guidance encourages the use of face masks, there is substantial evidence showing that masks are harmful and a lack of evidence showing they are effective in preventing the spread of coronavirus. Studies show that wearing a face covering reduces blood and tissue oxygenation — which can be deadly — while increasing carbon dioxide levels. Mask-wearing can also increase the risk of infection and the spread of viral illness, hinder detoxification that occurs via exhalation, impair the immune system and cause many other ailments, both physical and emotional. Moreover, some masks have been found to contain known carcinogens, which put people at risk from inhaling toxic chemicals and having them come into contact with their skin. —GreenMedinfo, Newsletter, July 3rd, 2020
So, while the science alone is enough to reject this extreme imposition, let’s be honest, resisting will do little good. The shots are no longer being called by bishops, mayors, and arguably, even presidents. “Anti-maskers” will not fair well in this new reality. In fact, Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a world leader in pandemic preparedness, suggests “We’ll be living with masks for years.”[1]July 6th, 2020; cnet.com
Rather then, the point of this article is a lament over the masking of something much more profound…
THE FACE IS AN ICON OF GOD
I was sitting in a barber’s chair for the first time in months. It was also the first time I was required to wear a mask in public; the hairdresser wore one the whole time. I studied her eyes as we chatted. I couldn’t tell whether she was smiling or grimacing, serious or sad… she was essentially expressionless. Afterward, I visited a couple of stores. There, too, blank faces with blinking eyes, peeking over designer masks, met my own gaze. I smiled and said hello… but all the thousands of little ways that we have learned over millennia to read and react, perceive and communicate with others, was rendered moot.
And this is a spiritual coup. For the face is the icon of the image of God in whom we are created. In fact, the Hebrew word for face is 
often rendered as “presence”: our face is essentially the physical representation of our presence. As such, when Adam and Eve sinned, they “hid themselves from the face (presence) of the Lord God.” [2]Gen 3:8; the RSV uses the word “presence”; the Douay-Rheims uses “face”, for example. In fact, God has even used the face of a person to manifest His own presence:
Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:29-30)
All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at [Stephen] and saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (Acts 6:15)
Even Jesus’ divinity was communicated to the Apostles in this way:
And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. (Matthew 17:2)
Hence, it was the face of Jesus that was also attacked at the onset of His Passion.
Then they spat in his face and struck him, while some slapped him… (Matthew 26:67)
THE GREAT DECEPTION
In all of this, one might be tempted to think that this humiliation of man is the triumph of Satan. But it’s not. He has much larger aims: to turn our worship away from God and bring man to bow at the feet of a “beast”: a new global system and leader who will save them from themselves.
They worshiped the dragon because it gave its authority to the beast; they also worshiped the beast and said, “Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?” (Rev 13:40)
You see, atheism is not the end game; Satan knows that man yearns for the transcendent and seeks the divine.
The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God… —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 27
Rather, despair is the goal; to bring the world to the brink of self-destruction, the Church to a point of impotency, and the political 
order to the point of collapse in order to create a Great Vacuum within the heart of man—at least, those who have rejected Jesus Christ. It is, at this point, that the Great Deceiver will come, a sweet deception that will be irresistible. For this Son of Perdition will have all the language of the Gospels, but devoid of Christ; he will promote brotherhood, but without authentic communion; he will speak of love, but without moral truth.
The Antichrist will fool many people because he will be viewed as a humanitarian with a fascinating personality, who espouses vegetarianism, pacifism, human rights and environmentalism. —Cardinal Biffi, London Times, Friday, March 10, 2000, referring to a portrait of the Antichrist in Vladimir Soloviev’s book, War, Progress and the End of History
Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 675
Thus, the loneliness of social media, of social distancing, and now, the masking of our emotions out of “social responsibility” is but one more step to the ultimate masking of the very image of God, Jesus Christ himself..
THE MASKING OF THE EUCHARIST
The face is a point of attack for, in it, Satan sees the reflection of the God that he himself rejected at the dawn of creation. Hence, just as the Passion of Christ targeted Jesus’ face to the point where He was no longer recognizable,[3]Isaiah 52:14 so too, the Passion of the Church will also see her become unrecognizable, albeit in a different manner that no less mocks and dehumanizes the person. I cannot speak for others, but there is a certain horror in seeing our priests in persona Christi being forced to wear masks, all the while the local cashier at the corner liquor store does not. In some ways, this is a harbinger of what is coming soon. The persecution of the mystical Body of Christ, the Church, will culminate in the obscuration of the Eucharistic face of Christ: when the Mass will be forbidden in public places. Oh, how close we are to this already!
…the public sacrifice [of the Mass] shall completely cease… —St. Robert Bellarmine, Tomus Primus, LIber Tertius, p. 431
Remarkably, the Hebrew word for “face”, pānîm, is also used to identify the “showbread” kept in the holy place, also known as the “bread of the Presence.”[4]Num 4:7; Matt 24: Thus, to suppress the Mass is the penultimate means by which Satan can, once again, attack the face of the Savior… and draw worship to himself.
Of course, this suppression of the Eucharist is already happening to one degree or another for the sake of the “common good.” Many Catholics are still struggling to find readily available Masses and the Sunday obligation has been rescinded in most places “for the time being.” But to suggest that the Eucharist is no longer essential for the common good is already evidence that the “strong delusion” (2 Thess 2:11) that precedes and accompanies the Antichrist, is at work.
In seeking the deepest roots of the struggle between the “culture of life” and the “culture of death”… We have to go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man… [that] inevitably leads to a practical materialism, which breeds individualism, utilitarianism and hedonism.—POPE JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae, n.21, 23
It is also a sign, echoed by so many of the seers recently on Countdown to the Kingdom, that the justice of God is not far off as this “Time of Mercy” draws to a close.
Without the Holy Mass, what would become of us? All here below would perish, because that alone can hold back God’s arm. —St. Teresa of Avila, Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love, by Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, FI; p. 15
Yes, a “great shaking”, “warning”, “correction” or “illumination of conscience” is coming; for the “eclipse of reason” has brought man to the point where his very identity is being extinguished.
…the foundations of the earth are threatened, but they are threatened by our behavior. The outer foundations are shaken because the inner foundations are shaken, the moral and religious foundations, the faith that leads to the right way of life. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, first session of the special synod on the Middle East, October 10th, 2010
If foundations are destroyed, what can the just one do? (Psalm 11:3)
CHRIST WILL REIGN
What can we do about all this?
The answer is to be faithful. It is to stay awake and to “watch and pray” as Our Lord commanded.[5]cf. He Calls While We Slumber It is to detach yourself from this era for it is quickly coming to an end. The Church must be purified for she has turned to other lovers, be they comfort, security, sensuality or political correctness. As we heard recently in the first Mass reading:
Israel is a luxuriant vine whose fruit matches its growth. The more abundant his fruit, the more altars he built; the more productive his land, the more sacred pillars he set up. Their heart is false, now they pay for their guilt; God shall break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars. (Hosea 10:1-2; July 8th)
Yes, the “axe lies at the root”[6]Matt 3:10 and those “dead branches” will be pruned away. It is time. And this means a painful purification is coming… and yet, a glorious renewal; the Passion of the Church… and yet, her resurrection.
For several weeks now, a poem I wrote has been on the forefront of my heart. It came to me one day as I was driving to Confession. All at once, I was given to see how the incredible “truth, beauty, and goodness” of the Church, that has been so taken for granted, must go now into the tomb.
But the resurrection to follow will be glorious when the wicked will have been unmasked and the faces of the faithful will shine in triumph.
Weep, O Children of Men!
WEEP, O children of men!
Weep for all that is good, and true, and beautiful.
Weep for all that must go down to the tomb
Your icons and chants, your walls and steeples.
Weep, O children of men!
For all that is good, and true, and beautiful.
Weep for all that must go down to the Sepulcher
Your teachings and truths, your salt and your light.
Weep, O children of men!
For all that is good, and true, and beautiful.
Weep for all who must enter the night
Your priests and bishops, your popes and princes.
Weep, O children of men!
For all that is good, and true, and beautiful.
Weep for all who must enter the trial
The test of faith, the refiner’s fire.
…but weep not forever!
For dawn will come, light will conquer, a new Sun will rise.
And all that was good, and true, and beautiful
Will breathe new breath, and be given to sons again.
RELATED READING
The Resurrection of the Church
To journey with Mark in The Now Word,
click on the banner below to subscribe.
Your email will not be shared with anyone.
Pour lire mes écrits en français, cliquez sur le drapeau:
