Blessed Assurance

Baxter has taken on a new routine. In the morning, after he has had breakfast, a few drinks at the spigot, and some litter box relief, he usually is planning on his nap. However, recently Baxter has added one more stop on his way to drifting off to sleep. He jumps on my lap, purring his heart out, and he wants to be petted and rest for a few minutes before going to his bed. At first, I couldn’t figure out the reason for this detour onto me. He used to just ignore me after his morning routine until he wanted something else to eat or drink. What’s with the cuddles, up close and personal? I came to figure it out.

Blessed assurance! Baxter needed a pat on the head, a rub under the chin and some quiet lap time to relax before he went to sleep. In his later years, he needs to know that we are ok, that I am there to take care of him and that he won’t be left alone to fend for himself. Baxter needs a boost in our trust so that he’s selfconfident as a cat again.

We are often in the same situation. Things change in us, around us, and among us, and we need to know where we stand with each other. We may not be able to do what we once were capable of doing. We may have a different schedule with more demands on our time. We may be physically weaker or emotionally distraught or both. We may have different demands placed on us at work or at home, and we are unsure of ourselves with these responsibilities. Whatever the reason, we need some reassurance that the anchors in our lives remain secure while other things may be changing.

God is our first anchor. When things get rocky, go to Him in prayer and worship. Listen to His divine message of faithful love and unending grace to face whatever life brings. Allow God in on your anxieties, lack of confidence, mistakes and failures, and He will place these into perspective. We are not alone. God walks with us through life’s changes to bolster our selfconfidence and show us how to persevere. Look for Him in the new circumstances we all face from time to time.

Those persons who love us are our second anchor. When circumstances change and challenge us, true love rises to the occasion with help and support, with encouragement and patience, with loyalty and sacrifices. With God as our shared foundation, we stand together through tough times. Sometimes we share the burdens; sometimes we challenge each other to rise to the new occasion and meet its demands. In all of this, we become the face of Jesus for each other, a sign that the first anchor is real and there for us all.

Baxter isn’t bashful about what he needs to carry on. We shouldn’t be either.

-Monsignor Statnick

Nothing Changes, But...

When the time sprung ahead last Sunday, I didn’t change anything with Baxter’s feeder. I was too lazy to go through all the steps of resetting the clock and the meal times. I figured he would just continue his usual routine with the same interval of time between meals. Of course, the world beyond Baxter’s feeder was operating a little differently. I was awake when his breakfast began now whereas in standard time I slept through it. But what should this matter to Baxter? The food is the same, in the same amount, offered at the same time for his biological clock. But that wasn’t good enough for him.

Since I am around now when he is waiting for his breakfast, Baxter wouldn’t allow me to proceed with my morning chores. He kept trying to intervene with my tasks, so that I would drop everything and get him his food. Even though everything was on the same time for his appetite, the setting had changed, and that mattered a lot to him. Why didn’t I pay attention to his needs now and focus on his hunger? While for six months of the year he is content to wait for his breakfast, now he has someone who could make an exception for him and stroke his ego. He wanted my attention, and he wasn’t happy when I didn’t give it to him.

We act that way sometimes as well. Nothing has really changed in the situation we find ourselves, but we want to get our way by gaining attention. We want to be made an exception and feel that we are special because of it. We think our needs should take priority over others, and we don’t like to have to fit into a standard procedure and policy. Especially when we have an audience to look and listen, we like to perform, to make a drama of our problems and concerns, and gain the attention of the moment. We like to be the star in our own play.

But God puts us in our place. There is no question that He loves us and is present to us at every moment. However, God will not dote on us, cater to our tantrums, or give into our egotistic demands. Instead, He reminds us to take our turns, play by the rules, and consider others as we go about our business. God calls us out of ourselves to take in the larger setting and the concerns it holds.

Daylight saving time allows us to enjoy an evening lit by the sun rather than our artificial light. God’s light shows us genuine needs and problems to be addressed, and exposes the false problems we create for ourselves from our selfishness. Baxter will survive the transition in time and eventually adjust to the new setting. Will we learn to live in God’s light and follow the Way it shows us, the way of Jesus, the Servant and Savior of us all?

Stubborn In Our Ways

Sometimes Baxter won’t listen. That usually happens when he either becomes impatient about something he wants or doesn’t want to hear that he can’t have what he wants. If he wants a drink from the spigot, Baxter cries from the tub. If I don’t respond immediately, he stands there and continues to cry unceasingly. He usually wins, unless I can get out of earshot of his racket. Begging from the table is another matter. If Baxter picks up the scent of some delicacy that delights his palette, he becomes very forceful in trying to get it. He will jump on the chair next to mine and pull at my arm to get a piece. If that doesn’t work, he will try to get on the table and nose his way to my plate. At that point, my voice gets stern with him and I quickly place him back on his chair. He settles down for a while until he can figure out how to launch another move for my food. Baxter can get stubborn about getting what he wants. He wants it NOW, and he wants it even if it isn’t good for him.

We can get that way too. We set our sights on something, and we don’t quit until we get it, and preferably as soon as possible. We get trapped by our desires. They begin to consume our lives. They take all our time and energy. They dominate how we relate to each other. They become the only thing we take into consideration when making decisions. That car, that house, that job, that relationship, or maybe just that way of doing something-I got to have whatever it is I want, and nothing will get in my way. This is the classic condition of the addict, but it sometimes marks all of our lives from time to time.

Lent is a time to free ourselves of the desires that weigh us down and keep us from wanting better things for ourselves. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are meant to change what drives us day to day. In raising our minds and hearts to God in a personal and mutual relationship, prayer is trying to show us something better to want. In consistently eating or drinking a little less, we shrink our appetite to taste more of what we do imbibe and appreciate it more. In sharing what we have, we realize what we have been given and grow in our thanks for life’s blessings.

In time, these disciplines cause us to be less driven but more satisfied. We move from quantity to quality. Less becomes more, because what we desire more and more we can’t buy or steal. We can only receive and accept it. Instead of feeding our appetites for various physical or psychological pleasures, we feed our souls with the food of happiness—genuine love, the taste of beauty and goodness, and gratitude for the richness of human life. These are God’s gifts.

Baxter’s life is driven by his basic instincts, and once he is hooked on something, he can’t see anything else. We are called to higher things, the things of God. His love makes us hungry for more, more of what makes life meaningful and full. Lent is the season when we tame our desires into Christian virtues that make us and our world better.

Moving Waters

As you know by now, Baxter likes to drink from a spigot. However, it is not so much the spigot, as the fact that the water coming from a spigot is moving and splashing. He doesn’t like calm ponds. He wants moving waters where the surface tension is broken and the waves or ripples show that something is happening here. In fact, Baxter is so intent on drinking only moving water that when he goes to his water bowl for a drink, he first pushes it around with this paw until he gets the required wave action worthy of his drink. As far as he is concerned, still water won’t satisfy his thirst, and he has to get it flowing before drinking it looks attractive.

God has the same attitude about the waters of baptism. Did you ever think about the fact that we can’t baptize someone in a still pool? The very act of baptism moves the waters and splashes them about. The waters stir when we baptize and the person who is baptized gets wet. We don’t enter the life of Christ neat and perfect looking. We come from the font with messy hair, maybe a little shaken by the shock of the cold water, and relying upon our family and friends to put us back together again. The ritual of baptizing physically disturbs us. And that’s the point.

The waters of life are living and moving. They engulf us when we enter into them, and they make us like them. They soak into us and change our demeanor and way of acting. They force us to move about because they change our body temperature and feel. They communicate a dynamic energy that disrupts our usual metabolism and can even cause us for a moment to gasp for breath. They grab our attention, and we can’t ignore the difference they make on us.

Lent is meant to renew this energy of baptism in us. Too often we drift into a stagnant pool of faith where we are warm and comfortable with our way of life. Lent stirs the waters around us to get us moving. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are paddles used to disturb the surface so that we can move through the waters with God’s lead. We are invited to dive more deeply into the meaning of our baptism. Being baptized is not just a status in the church opening us to the privilege of receiving the other sacraments. It is a call to become someone: to become a disciple in close relationship with Jesus; to become a minister who seeks to serve others and not just one’s self; to become a witness to the meaning that comes to life when touched by God’s abundant love and forgiveness.

So splash about a bit more this Lent when you think about repentance and renewal. Stagnant water breeds disease, but flowing waters cleanse and purify. Baxter is on to something with his quirky drinking habits. God is onto something bigger when He invites us into His life through baptism.

Understanding Each Other

The other night I was intent on finishing some long delayed work at the dining room table. I was busily writing my thoughts and organizing the material, and Baxter kept hanging around. Since I didn’t have any food to offer him, I was wondering why he remained sitting at the foot of my chair. After a while, he began to meow loudly. I asked him what he wanted. I told him there was no food available now. But he kept meowing forcefully. I decided to ignore him, and after a while, he left the area. However, in a few minutes he was back, and he started his meowing again. This went on for several sessions—walking away, returning, meowing, walking away, returning, meowing . . . . All the while, I decided to ignore him and go on with my work.

Finally, his persistence and its annoyance caused me to stop, ask him again what he wanted, and then get up from my chair. Baxter took off for the bathroom. That was it. He wanted a drink from the spigot. I missed what he was looking for, because I was so absorbed in my own project. It just took a few minutes for him to lap up the running water and be wiped dry, and we were both happy again.

We catch each other in the same kind of predicaments, don’t we? We are so involved in our own concerns, work or interests that we can’t hear or see anything outside of them. Now, ours are not trivial matters. People are counting on us. We should be committed and conscientious about our responsibilities. Research has shown that multi-tasking doesn’t work. We can’t handle two or more things at the same time with equal quality devoted to each. So how are we to blame for missing the messages others want to send us? We have to stand up for what we believe and do our job.

Yes, but we are in this together. Even when we each have our separate roles to play, it’s not a one person play. It’s an ensemble of actors with God as the producer and director. That is how the story of salvation is written and presented, and we get into trouble when we try to rewrite the script or act it out differently.

When we get lost in our concerns, work or interests, we miss the dialogue between characters that gives the play energy and meaning. Not that our part doesn’t matter, it does. But it matters most when it fits into a whole drama of human beings searching together for what makes life valuable and purposeful. Being part of something bigger than ourselves makes our lives bigger than our individual concerns and interests. These expand into shared desires that we help each other refine and fulfill. Our church teaches this kind of theater as the “common good” where God is served when the most are served by many acting together.

We all need to lift our heads out of our private projects from time to time and hear what others are trying to tell us. At first, we may not understand them, but if we stop, notice each other, and listen to other’s concerns, we will form a relationship where our perspective and care will grow. Then we will begin to take their concerns, interests and responsibilities into consideration. It worked with Baxter, and we don’t even speak the same language. Just think what might happen with God’s grace between human beings who do.

The Cold Shoulder

I got the cold shoulder from Baxter for a couple of days. I was away from the house a lot, and he didn’t take kindly to my absence. It was nothing personal, but Baxter didn’t see it that way. He didn’t greet me when I came home in the evening as he usually would do. He sat with his back to me when I was eating. He slept facing the wall with his least attractive end facing my direction. None of his signals was subtle. He was making me pay for what he viewed as a slight, a personal insult. How could I have ignored him for other things—like office work, recreation or ministering to God’s people? Of course, his needs for food, water and even pleasant music were attended to, but this wasn’t enough. He wasn’t the center of my attention for a few days, and this wasn’t acceptable.

We can get that way too. We want to be noticed. We want people to pay attention to us and our needs. We want to know that we matter to other’s lives. So we do certain things to send this message and hold others’ feet to the fire about answering it. Often our techniques are a little more subtle than Baxter’s, but they serve the same purpose. The message is clear: Give me your undivided attention and serve me on my terms. Anything less is ignored as trite and trivial, divided love and loyalty, or token obligations rather than true affection. We impose our terms of  commitment, dedication and love on the other person, and refuse to negotiate them.

Jesus certainly called for total commitment, dedication and love from His followers. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10:37) Yet, He did not try to control or dictate to His disciples the specific terms of this pledge.

The disciples came from all walks of life—fishermen, tax collectors, politically and religiously left and right. Some were out spoken and almost impetuous—Peter and Paul—and some seemed mild mannered or even skeptical—John, Philip and Thomas. What they held in common though was a shared desire to seek God and God’s ways among us. This desire is what Jesus touched in each of them and what brought such a disparate group of persons together to form a band of followers, then a community of disciples, and finally a communion of life called the Church. The litmus test of their love and loyalty was not in what they said or even in what they did--some said challenging things and performed wrong-headed actions with Jesus. The key to their love and commitment was not abandoning their search, not losing their desire to discover God’s will and way for their lives.

In this divided world--and sometimes divided Church-- we live in today, we need to tap the  root of our common desires. We want to know, love and serve God. From this desire, others flow. . We want a better world for our children where they can be safe and have a chance at their dreams. We want a fairer way to share the earth’s goods and a chance to develop our talents and skills. We want the Kingdom of God. To get there, we each and all have to relinquish our private little kingdoms where we try to control and manipulate others to serve our selfish purposes. We need to serve the common good, the desire planted in the heart of every human being for God to be with us, directing us to a better life for everyone.

This vision is beyond Baxter’s ability to see and pursue. So he fusses and pouts when he feels offended and ignored. He’s a cat. Because God made us different from cats, we can be better than that. Let’s start trying.

A Little At A Time

Besides his mellow and affectionate disposition, another sign of Baxter’s maturity is a change in his eating habits. He certainly still has his appetite, but he satisfies it differently now. When Baxter was younger, he gobbled down his food. As soon as the feeder would deliver a new portion, he would run to it and inhale it all. Within five minutes, his meal was over. Sometimes he would eat so fast that he couldn’t keep it down. It all got stuck somewhere in his esophagus, and there just wasn’t enough room to hold it all.

Now the picture has changed. Baxter still runs for his food, but he ingests it differently. He will chomp down a part of the meal and then stop. He goes for a drink of water and walks away for a rest or bathroom break. After ten or fifteen minutes, he goes back for a little more. This routine continues for perhaps three or four visits to the feeding station. After that, he usually leaves just a few morsels for a mid-morning snack. He paces himself through a meal, and I am sure his digestive track is grateful for this slower intake that allows time to process the contents.

How do we take in the nourishment life offers us? Do we savor its taste, aroma and satisfaction, or do we absorb it just to survive? We can go about our days just getting things done, because they are necessary for our work, our families or other obligations we have assumed. At the end, we are exhausted and frustrated. Tomorrow, it all starts over, and sleep is simply a recharging station we use to have the energy to get through another day. This approach can leave us feeling empty, while our schedule is full. We go through the motions of a full life, but interiorly we are queasy and upset. The stomachs of our souls are growling for genuine nourishment.

Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) To grasp the rich life Christ offers, we need time to take it in, to reflect on what is happening in the light of faith. We want to see ourselves as characters in the story of God’s saving mystery in Christ. This understanding is only possible if we sit quietly and look at the particulars of our lives slowly and carefully. The deepest meaning where God is knitting our lives together is not caught on the run, gobbling down experience after experience, and feeling overloaded. This level is disclosed in bits and pieces with time to fully digest the details where God is often hidden.

Sometimes the scene is dark and bitter, and we are tempted to spit it out and move on. At other times it is light and sweet, and we want to overindulge in it, filling our outlook with self-importance and self-pride. Only with slow and careful reflection on all of it, do we see the true picture where God’s grace was upholding us, guiding us, nourishing us and moving us along. Bit by bit we see a pattern, a hidden and holy presence, a movement that is transforming us. At feeding time when we are starving for soul food, we often miss this divine milieu, but in the quiet of the night, with time to digest the
day, we can savor its nourishment and allow it to build up our strength and vitality.

In the German language there are two words for eating, fressen and essen. Fressen is what animals do when they tear into their meals to get as much as they can for fear that another animal may come and steal it. Essen is what human beings do when they have overcome their fears and take time to dine, to share nourishment and savor its goodness. Maybe Baxter is becoming a little more human in his eating patterns. Maybe we need to become a little more human in our pattern of life. Plato attributes to Socrates the line, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” To nourish our spirits, we need to take the time to digest what God gives us in the course of our lives.