“BELLING THE CAT”

         

Aesop tells us the fable of the Mice and the Cat. There was a nervous group of mice whose number was steadily diminishing by a cat stealthily sneaking up on them and quietly carrying them off one by one. The mice assembled for a secret meeting to decide what they could do to preserve themselves from this silent predator.

After much discussion, one bright young mouse came up with the idea of hanging a bell round the cat’s neck so they could then hear it coming and escape in time. This received enthusiastic approval from all the mice except for one old mouse who remained silent. They thought he was deaf and began to explain their proposal in detail. He stopped them with one question – who will actually put the bell round the cat’s neck?

Uh oh! So many worthwhile plans fall at the hurdle of implementation, and by now you are wondering what this has to do with Easter anyway. Ahhh! The bottom line of the fable is not only to remind us how reality impedes all our idealism but that to achieve something worthwhile and essential is often impossible without cost and self-sacrifice. We cannot have our cake and eat it too.

We see this so plainly in what happens in the world around us. US Presidents and other leaders have been assassinated when they promote peaceful and just diplomacy over violence. We see Barack Obama copping it for trying to institute fair healthcare in the US. We see German Chancellor Angela Merkel pilloried for her courageous generosity in helping Syrian refugees find safety in her country. We ask why it is so risky, dangerous, and costly to do what is good in the teeth of vested interests determined to milk the vulnerable.

There are two events in the Acts of the Apostles where Paul suffers from doing what is good and right. In Philippi he heals a demented slave-girl fortune-teller from her suffering only to have her owners, now thwarted from their easy income, have him and Silas thrown into prison. In Ephesus Paul preaches a God not made with hands to the ire of the silversmiths who cause a riot because their income would be threatened so they force Paul into house arrest for his own protection.

Now the penny drops about Easter. Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem knowing full well he is unlikely to leave it alive despite the protestations of his disciples who want to see him achieve the Kingdom by force.

But that would have defeated the purpose. The true Kingdom that needed to come required running a relentless gauntlet into ultimate self-sacrifice.

            There is something in what we call human nature (which is anything but truly human) that resists that Kingdom coming in which God’s will is done on earth as it is done in heaven. We keep expecting God’s will to be done in heaven as it is done on earth. One only has to look at Syria, Manus Island, and too many other places to know all human beings seem able to do on earth is to establish hell instead.

            Belling the cat is going to be dangerous and costly if it is going to work. Jesus takes up the self-sacrifice himself, not because of any perceived wrath of God but because of the wrath of human beings who will not co-operate with God’s Kingdom or any other rule where one cannot receive the lion’s share in it. And it’s all because we as human beings have since time immeasurable have insisted on our advantage that it became necessary for Jesus to take on the disadvantage that would then have to occur.

            This is why Jesus has become the most avoided person in history because we know all too well that it’s not God but ourselves who are responsible for putting Jesus on the cross. We call the day Good Friday because Jesus with eyes wide open gave himself for us. In the words of children’s hymn writer Cecil Frances Alexander, “He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make us good.” We call the season Easter because our crucified Lord has risen and he has risen in us. “You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within our hearts”. And we are the Church because we can experience and share our new lease of life. Go out and live.