Swine Flu and Faith

The news is reporting the 5th known death from Swine Flu in the state of Utah. Which hits a little too close to home for me knowing that there are been confirmed cases of it in my neighborhood. In fact not just in my neighborhood but right in my ward. (church congregation)

Which means, of course, that for the past 2 or 3 weeks I couldn't help but keep an wary eye as the sacrament was passed to the congregation during services. I'd cringe each time somebody sneezed and then reached forth with that same hand to take a piece of broken bread, knowing that soon that same tray was going to be passed to me.

So you can imagine the giddy delight I felt when reading the following passage in the book I've been reading. It's from a book called The Longest Trip Home a memoir by John Grogan. (the author of Marley and Me) He was raised in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood and here he is recounting one of his many experiences serving as an Alter Boy.

"Some priests were so skilled they could deftly pop a host on the tongue without making any flesh-to-flesh contact and almost never fumbling. But most of them, in their caution not to drop Christ's body and risk sacrilege, ended up touching the recipient's lip or tongue, then doing it again for the next person in line, and the next. Standing beside him, I could actually see Father's thub and fingertips wet with saliva. The number of germs spread in communion lines should have triggered a four-alarm public heath alert, but no one seemed to mind. What was a little shared spit among true believers who were all going to heaven anyway? Besides, it was hard to imagine the Son of God would come into your body and then let you catch a disease simply because Father's host-dispensing skills weren't up to par. If Jesus could multiply fishes and loaves and raise the dead, he could certainly make sure no one contracted strep throat from the communion line." The Longest Trip Home, pg 69-70

I can't help but think that if the Lord, who is no respecter of persons, will keep the Catholics safe from strep in the communion line that He'll also keep the Mormons safe from Swine Flu during the sacrament.