‘For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.’
THIS FB post by Troy Coligado from a comment to PCOO Sec. Martin Andanar distancing himself from the “Wow China” program on government-owned radio, Radyo Pilipina, from Marcus Tullius Cicero.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”
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An ICU nurse at Brooklyn Hospital in New York City gave a heartrending appeal on video for more understanding to their kind of work. She exemplifies the wrenching and thankless struggle that accompanies the frenzied and dangerous work of our own nurses and doctors in the country. But little is heard about any psycho-social assistance that should be freely given to these frontliners whose tears never end. Breaking into sobs the black nurse said she was “tired of walking into rooms of dead patients and of calling their families” to break the dire news. She “felt so much sadness for my fellow nurses and other workers who have lost their lives.” She has no regrets and that she “would not trade this for anything in the world.” She appealed for understanding especially from people who think that she and other health workers “are immune to all the suffering and deaths around them.”
The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:3 -4 that “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and godliness. Through these, He has given us his great and gracious promises…” These passages hardly apply to those most besieged by the dreaded virus and many others who fear it.
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DepEd might as well reset the opening of classes for a year as opposition from parents continues to swell. The government cannot guarantee the strict enforcement of restrictions among the kids, especially on social distancing, which certainly will deepen the fear and anxiety of their loved ones. No one seems relieved by the truth that becomes powerful when applied, that “His divine power has given us everything we need for life” which US Evangelist Andrew Womack would say, includes a good job education for the children, a comfortable home, as well as health and strength of our bodies. He has seized every opportunity to heal the sick, and on casting out a real sense of unbelief that is easily embraced by the seriously-ill.
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Womack has conducted regular Bible studies on healing in the US and Canada and claims many miraculous recoveries. Protestant and Born-Again communities remember him as the preacher whose ten-year-old son was raised from the dead. The truth of the matter is that this virus scourge has drawn more people to God than before, but without the genuine trust He wants. Deeply-troubled and sick Catholics and Christian believers alike have been turned away by their churches. The pulpits have excluded supernatural healings, leaving the congregations with just nearly half of the New Testament to ponder where the innumerable healings and miracles by Jesus and the apostles can no longer be found.
Priests and pastors in the US and here would commonly advise the cancer-stricken, financially-troubled and the depressed to go and see doctors, loan accompanies and psychiatrists, instead of leading them by the hand lovingly and faithfully through the Bible for divine healing. One of the largest Born-again churches here is not inclined towards supernatural healings and some prayer presiders have been replaced for being too Holy Spirit-fuelled praying intently for the sick and the emotionally and spiritually-troubled.
