Fr. Cantalamessa recalls story of 17th-century painter James Thornhill, who was prevented from deadly fall from scaffolding while observing a painting by his assistant, who threw a brush at the fresco, causing his master to spring forward rather than falling to his death.

"God does this with us sometimes," Fr. Cantalamessa said. "He disrupts our projects and our calm to save us from the abyss we don’t see."

Fr. Cantalamessa: "But we need to be careful not to be deceived. God is not the one who hurled the brush at the sparkling fresco of our technological society. God is our ally, not the ally of the virus!"