QUARANTINE AND LENT / Satan against God: a theological reading

The grandmother, when it rained with the sun, used to say: “The Devil is combing his hair!” A proverb that, in my country, has the value of a sacred truth. It usually happens in spring and autumn: the weather is stormy, clear. The best part is that the rainbow also appears. The question was a must: “Why does the Devil comb his hair?” She, without doctorates: “To make yourself beautiful and to distract men better!” We, in response, jumped up saying: “The devil combs, the devil combs, the devil combs!” And we jumped to expose it: tongue out, hands on ears like a bowl. To tease him until it all ended: dry throat, hoarse voice, warm face. The winner was the one who, last of all, got tired of taking it by the bottoms.

Today, in the street, a downpour surprised me: the sun shone and, in the background, a double rainbow stretched across the sky. My grandmother came to mind: “It is the Devil who is combing his hair: to make himself beautiful and to deceive Christians”.

The devil, deception, Christians: a trinity whose relevance is embarrassing. Such a surgery, in dark and picturesque hues, had never seemed more evident to me. The Eucharistic block – a perfect way of fasting – started on Ash Day, beginning of Lent. God is a mother, “she takes the bread out of her mouth” to feed her children; Satan, the pestiferous virus, takes Christ-Bread out of our mouth to make hope die in the hungry people. He keeps Peter, the first name of Pope Francis, in the Vatican by carrying out a real kidnapping: he prevents him from participating in the course of spiritual exercises. Exercises, exercises, trainings: it is as if, to the captain, they prevented the finishing training before the final match. “A setback – supporters justify, paid on purpose to make it pass quietly -. One week, then you will see: it starts again! ”

Then, every eight days, the postponement: “The order is extended by a further week.” Then another, yet another: until Easter, or so (I would be wrong). Which is of a huge echo: Satan responds to the Christian Lent with the virus quarantine. “Corona” is an image of inhuman kingship: “The soldiers, woven a crown of thorns, put it on his head” (Jn 19,2). Ash on the head is an announcement of lent, crown-virus on the heads and quarantine. The reason? To deceive Christians, grandmother would answer. Said in theology? “The Demon has all its power only on loan – writes Papini in one of his terrifying books -; he knows it, therefore he recognizes his capital supplier in God; therefore it takes revenge on God. All evil is destruction of the creditor; the delinquent wants to kill God. ” Satan is not an atheist: he knows well that his power is linked to that of the Lord.

We are well aware that the various ordinances will continue until almost Easter: the quarantine is administered in small doses. In such a way that, absent-minded, we miss that Lent slips away; that the favorable time passes before the eyes. Lost time, however, is not time that returns; days lost forever. Even debating about half-closed churches now seems distracting: there isWe cordial that the last time we made communion, God made us his tabernacles. He is within us: “Est Deusi in nobis, agitare calescimus illo” (“There is a God within us, and when he agitates us, we warm up”) writes Ovid.

This time we are the ones who have to keep him as the most jealous of loves, attending us outside the home, which is the church. “We disobey ordinances: everyone in church!” No, it would be a double fall: Satan wants chaos. So?

Exiled, we become warriors. I like the Pope: forced to stay home from the spiritual exercises, he does not let go, he is following them from his room. It is a beautiful image: it is faith at the time of martyrdom, God kept burning under lightning, outside churches, on the street.

More than exiles, it is a Lent for real warriors: we hold on clinging to that Host deposited in the last Eucharist. He clung to our resistance. For Satan time is running out: “A great sign appeared in the sky: a woman clothed with the sun, a crown of twelve stars on her head” (Ap 12,1). Sky, sun, crown. Everything (re) returns.

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