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Gospel: Today Jesus definitively rejects the theory that sickness or disability is God's punishment for sinful behavior, when he meets a blind man: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned"(Jn 9:1-41)
So don't listen to anyone, even clergy, who tell you that the #coronavirus is a punishment for sins--either your sins, the sins of some group (usually a group they oppose) or the world's sins. Jesus rejects this approach outright in today's Gospel and again in Luke 13: 2-5.
In Luke, Jesus speaks of a group Galileans who were killed: "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you..."
Then he speaks about a crowd killed by a falling tower in Jerusalem: "Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you..."
Jesus rejects three times the idea of a monstrous God who punishes people with illness or disability. This is not the God of the New Testament. Instead, Jesus accompanies us in our infirmities, and for those in his time, heals them.
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