Opinion
We are what we love. “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” says the prophet Joel.
Lent is a matter of the heart! “Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.” This is the church’s Lenten call to repentance, and this is what we are setting out to do in these following 40 days.
First we have to have an authentic understanding of “repentance.”
The Greek word for repentance, “metanoia,” denotes a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook of our vision of the world, and of our own self; and a new way of loving ourselves, loving others, and loving God. In other words: a “change of heart.”
It involves not mere regret of past evil but of our recognition of the distorted vision of our own condition, in which sin, by separating us from God, has reduced us to a divided, autonomous existence, depriving us of both our natural glory and our freedom.
Rather than mere dwelling on human sinfulness, repentance becomes the realization of human insufficiency and limitation.
Repentance then should not be accompanied by a preoccupation with our guilt but by an awareness of our estrangement from God and from each other.
This meaning of repentance replaces its negative connotation with a positive one, focusing on the communion with God that we are aiming for rather than the alienation that we are leaving behind.
Why did Jesus single out prayer, fasting and almsgiving? The Jewish religion in the time of Jesus considered these three practices as the principle works of the religious life. These were seen as the key signs of a pious person, the three great pillars on which a righteous life was based.
But Jesus pointed to the heart of the matter. Why do you pray, fast and give alms? To give glory to God? Or to draw attention to yourself so that others may notice and think highly of you?
Our Lord warns his disciples, and us, of self-seeking glory – the preoccupation with looking good and seeking praise from others.
True piety is something more than feeling good about yourself or looking holy. True piety is loving devotion to God. It is an attitude of awe, reverence, worship and obedience.
So why the ashes? Being strewed with ashes is an ancient sign of humility. It is dust – matter of the earth – which the ancient scriptures, and modern science, tell us we are made of. In other words – dirt!
And humility is definitely a dirty word in our modern culture. The word itself comes from the Latin word for dirt or soil. That’s why we call the soil in our gardens – humus! It’s from the same root word. So humility just means being down to earth, having your feet on the ground. That’s not so bad is it?
It's expressed beautifully in an old Shaker hymn:
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free,
'tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be,
and when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
to turn, turn, will be our delight
till by turning, turning we come round right.
That’s the starting point! It is only when we have our feet firmly planted on the ground that we can turn around and rechart our course.
And that’s humility. It is only when we are not so full of ourselves that we can be filled with God.
And that is what Jesus offers us. It is communion with God our loving Father. It is coming home to the loving arms of our Father who awaits us, who longs for us. In God alone we find the fullness of life, happiness and love. God wants to renew us each day and give us new hearts of love and compassion.
Today, we are called to journey with Jesus in a special season of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, as we prepare to celebrate the feast of Easter, our Christian Passover.
We, too, must follow our Lord in the way of the cross in denying ourselves and taking up our own cross in order to share in the victory of Christ's death and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit is ever ready to transform our hearts and to lead us further into God’s life of love and holiness.
Fr. Leo M. Joseph, O.S.F., is parish priest for St. John’s Parish in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Fr. Leo M. Joseph, O.S.F.
When you think about it, many of us have had an encounter with an unowned “community cat” whether it is feral, abandoned, a drifter or one looking for new territory.
My most memorable experience was a large tom that paid occasional visits from a nearby feral colony and often fought with my cats.
After numerous wounds and abscesses my cat Toby contracted Feline AIDS (FIV), which is transmitted via cat-to-cat bite wounds. Two years ago his immune system weakened and I had to euthanize him due to an overwhelming infection.
Many of the people feeding unowned felines may not realize the impact these free-roaming cats have on the populations around them.
Anyone providing food to any cat is considered a “caregiver,” like it or not. Caregivers have good intentions but beyond feeding, many are unwilling or unable to have their cats spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and tested for contagious diseases such as FIV and Feline Leukemia (FeLV).
Once a food source is provided cats will be attracted and will congregate, exhibiting group behaviors such as socializing, breeding, hunting, and fighting. Before you know it, a colony has formed and will grow exponentially if the food source can support it.
The risk of disease is higher in groups of cats since many infectious organisms transmit via saliva, respiratory secretions, and feces. Social grooming, eating/drinking from the same bowl, etc. can transmit the respiratory viruses, Feline Leukemia, and rarely FIV.
Bite wounds can transmit FIV and Rabies, not to mention lots of bacteria. Fecal material can transmit panleukopenia (a parvovirus) and intestinal parasites.
External parasites such as fleas, ticks, and ear mites thrive within cat colonies since they have a smörgåsbord of individuals to feed from.
Many infections and parasites have “carrier” or latent stages, where the individual appears healthy yet can transmit disease to other cats or people.
And worse yet, a pregnant female can transmit FeLV or FIV to her fetuses, so kittens may be born infected and will appear healthy during the first few months of life.
Often caregivers try to befriend and handle unowned cats, putting themselves at risk for bites and scratches.
Anyone trying to pet or catch a cat with unknown vaccination status should be aware of a few health risks.
Cats are now the most frequently reported domestic rabid (infected with rabies) animal in the U.S., and anyone bitten by an unvaccinated cat should take preventative measures against the disease. For some baffling reason rabies vaccination is not required by law for cats in this state or county.
Cat scratches, often a minor painful nuisance, may transmit Bartonella (aka Cat Scratch Disease) a vague illness of fevers, swollen lymph nodes, aching, and malaise.
All this information may seem a bit alarmist or may discourage some from befriending stray cats altogether.
I would like to reinforce, though, that it is not enough for caregivers to just provide food for community cats.
They should make every attempt to get these cats spayed or neutered, tested for FeLV and FIV (and eliminated from the population if carrying either) and vaccinated against rabies, the respiratory viruses, parvovirus and leukemia.
A trap-neuter-return (TNR) program, such as the new Catsnip program sponsored by Lake County veterinarians, helps accomplish these goals by providing a free surgery and rabies vaccine.
In addition, most of the participating hospitals offer discounted pricing – for cats in the program – for the other feline vaccinations and testing.
Let me reiterate from Dr. Jeff Smith’s previous article that only unowned cats qualify for this free program.
Contacts for the program are: north county – Vicki Chamberlain,
Please consider the health of the surrounding human and animal communities when feeding unowned cats.
Lisa Takesue, DVM, works at Main Street Veterinary Clinic in Lakeport, Calif. Her guest commentary is endorsed by her colleagues at Middletown Animal Hospital, Animal Hospital of Lake County, Wasson Memorial Veterinary Clinic and Clearlake Animal Hospital.
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- Written by: Dr. Lisa Takesue, DVM
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