I read an article in the newspaper a few weeks ago about a cat that was arrested in Brazil for carrying contraband into a prison. The feline felon had a cell phone, drills, an earphone, a memory card, batteries and a phone charger taped to its body. It was obviously an accomplice in a plot to escape the prison confines in some way, if only to do business beyond its walls. I guess that the plan was for no one to notice the cat straying onto prison grounds. When it was in the exercise yard someone would relieve it of its loot and benefit from the means of outside contact it provided. I don’t know if the cat got anything from the transaction. Treats? Catnip? Extra scratches under the chin? Maybe the cat was an innocent victim, forced to be a beast of burden to provide some human the means for a sinister enterprise. However, knowing cats as I do, I doubt this hypothesis. “Innocent” is not a natural description for this species. The cat had something up its paw, even if the angle wasn’t clearly evident. It’s in the genes.
Now we may not use our pets to smuggle contraband into a prison, but we do sometimes use them and others for our own, self-serving purposes. Did you ever dress up your dog or cat for Halloween, Christmas or July Fourth? Did they like it? So why do we do such things? We think it’s cute or funny. They want free of the costume. We want to show them off. They want to run away and be free of the encumbrances. We want pictures to show our friends. They want the peace and quiet of a nap. We use our pets for our own purposes, and they reluctantly cooperate. After all, we are their meal ticket.
While all of this may be harmless and frivolous fun, it does point out something in ourselves that can easily erase the humor. We like to make each other over for our own purposes. We believe that we know what the other person needs to look better, be happier, make a success of him or her self. We are quick and easy with advice for others. We may even con another into doing what we want by making them think it was his or her idea. Some of us are masters at manipulation, or at least we try to be. We use others for our purposes, and sometimes it’s easy because they want to be used to avoid taking responsibility for their own lives. In the end, no one is the better for the experience. Rather, both parties in such a relationship get stuck into patterns that keep them from maturing and being the best they can be. They need each other, one to control and manipulate, the other to be controlled and dependent. No one knows the freedom God gave us in this kind of arrangement.
God respects us for who we truly are, God’s children. He doesn’t try to make us over into something we aren’t. He wants us to be ourselves, but our true selves, our best selves. That takes practice. We don’t become good, truthful, loving, caring and always growing and improving in the virtues by taking a pill or being told what to do or having someone do it for us. We have to work at what we want to become. If we want to be honest and truthful, deal straight with others and tell the truth. If we want to be generous, start by giving something away. If we want to be learned, study. If we want to be loving and caring, do something kind for another. Get it? We have to practice and practice and practice acts of virtue to become virtuous. When practices become a habit, then they get inside us and come from there. Our spirits and our actions unite, and we don’t have to think about doing the right thing and deciding in its favor. We just do it because it’s who we are, it’s what we have become through practice, a practice we chose to follow. No attachments or costumes are needed here.
The closest Baxter gets to a costume is the Notre Dame collar I put around his neck. I don’t think he is a true fan. He simply humors me by wearing it. I have never tried to attach anything to his body. He would have it off before I left the room. Baxter is his own cat, and I admire him for that. When we become our own persons, we won’t be perfect. We will have to ask for forgiveness at times and correct our mistakes. But I believe God will respect us for our attempts at genuine virtue, and help us grow over time in His grace. Finally, isn’t that what matters most?
