Messy Living

Living with a pet is messy. It’s not that everything is out of order and in chaos, but a person has to accept a certain amount of untidiness, if he or she is going to have a pet. With Baxter, I sweep up grains of litter from the bathroom floor once or twice a day. They fall from his paws when he jumps from the box. He isn’t the neatest diner either. He splashes his water, getting it to move before he drinks it, and he throws his kibble on the floor. (He takes too much into his mouth at one time, and when he chomps down on it, the excess spews out.) Then there is the cat hair.

The extent of this problem is seasonal. During shredding time, there are fluffs of cat hair in various corners and under numerous pieces of furniture. At other times of the year, the hair blizzard diminishes to a sprinkle of strands here and there. Although he is brushed vigorously daily, Baxter will never totally overcome his problem of loose hair dancing through the air and clinging to clothes.

This messy picture is the cost of having a pet. Most pet owners pay this fee without them, but it would also be lonelier, duller and less interesting.

God works in the same way. He accepts the messiness of our lives because He loves us so much and doesn’t want to live without us. He realizes that this involves Him in our sin, but He has a way to handle the situation. Jesus is the Way, the way to the Father through the dirt and litter that lines human life. His cross characterizes our lives as stricken by the effects of sin and evil in the world, but also as redeemed by the power of His Spirit to forgive and heal. It’s a messy journey, marked by suffering, rejection, doubt and fear, but in the end, we all discover that it is worth it. Joy, peace and gratitude come when we live in communion with God who lives with us.

The Sacrament of Penance is how we celebrate this reality in our lives now. The conversation between priest and penitent sets the path for God’s grace to be disclosed. There is no room for harsh judgments here. If God accepts the messiness of the human condition as the arena for His salvation, how can we demand something else? Our struggle to speak our sins clearly and completely in this sacrament is the cross where we kill our egos and their arrogance. In turn, God lays out His mercy as the tomb to receive our sins and  complaint. They do the cost benefit analysis and decide that the companionship, joy and satisfaction that come from beloved pets are worth the mess. Life would be neater without bury them. Finally, we depart this sacrament with a resolve to try again, because we appreciate more fully the power that forgiveness and healing can bring. Both priest and penitent are touched with grace in this sacrament, because we rise to a better life every time we forgive and are forgiven.

As long as we have a pet, we will live with some mess. As long as God claims us as His people, He will also have our messes on His hands. But in Christ He has a way to handle them. Sacraments of Divine Mercy touch us and sweep them away.

-Monsignor Statnick