By Fr. Victor Feltes
Donna grew up an only child on a farm, and though not as important as her love for her family and our Lord she also dearly loves animals. Her obituary notes how she has “had an incredible fondness of God’s creatures from her very youngest years to her passing.” As a girl, she raised a pet raccoon. Once, after learning how to live trap, she caught a skunk and wisely let it go. More conventionally as an adult, she owned a dog and daily fed the animals at her bird feeder and on her lawn. She even got in trouble once for feeding deer in town. In her later years, “even to her last days of driving, Donna could be seen at Irvine Park with her loaf of bread feeding her adopted ducks, geese, and squirrels that she had virtually tamed to eat from her hand. She had a near magic touch with them and earned every bit of her Donna Doolittle nickname.” Donna has a remarkable love for animals. Even through this was materially unprofitable to her, she loved them. Consider how such a love is a reflection of God’s love.
Sometimes we use animals for practical purposes; for labor or transportation; for meat, milk, or eggs; for leather or wool; for security, hunting, or herding. But even without a further utilitarian purpose we can love, delight in, and care for animals. God likewise uses us to accomplish his will on earth. Yet, while Almighty God does not strictly need human beings for anything, he loves, delights in, and cares for us. “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them…”
One way in which we share the image of the Lord of all creation is in our lordship over the living creatures on earth. God said: “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.” Adam’s first God-given task in the story of Genesis was in relation to the animals. “The Lord God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each living creature was then its name. The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals….”
Our relationship with the animals bears a likeness to the Lord’s relationship with us. Sometimes Jesus said things about animals to reveal truths about God’s love and care for us. Jesus says, “Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds!” “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.” “Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. … Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” Jesus lamented over the Holy City, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”
And we hear Jesus declare, “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.” The Lord Jesus is our Good Shepherd who guides us in right paths for his name sake and who will call us to resurrection. He assures us, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. … The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.”
Donna faithfully belonged to “The Good Lord” of whom she was not bashful to speak. As a member of his flock, he fed her with his Eucharist, his very self, which she richly treasured. Donna knew her Lord’s voice, listened to him in prayer, and followed him. And so, while we pray for Donna’s soul’s, for her we fear no evil, since Jesus Christ her Good Shepherd loves her more than we love any earthly creature.
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