I’ve heard it said that life is a cat and mouse game. It sure seems that way sometimes. Locked into instinctual patterns of behavior, the cat can do nothing but go on the hunt; using stealth to close in for the kill. The mouse can do nothing but use his speed and dexterity to avoid his perennial predator. Must it always be that way? Is there no way that the survival of the fittest could be transcended by a power greater than itself?
I’ve also heard it said that two people fight like cats and dogs. But again, does not nature itself offer examples where this proverbial metaphor can be transcended? The Hebrew Bible describes an idyllic time when the lion will lie down with the lamb. Why couldn’t the dog rescue the cat in a perilous situation?
Jesus of Nazareth taught us to forgive our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use and persecute us. Is that too much to ask of human nature? Are we so trapped in cycles of revenge we must get even at any cost? Perhaps we are so locked into the law of retaliation; “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” that breaking that cycle is an impossible dream which must wait for utopia to come to this world.
In spite of mounting evidence that screams of man’s inhumanity to man, I choose to cling to my ideal that human nature, with divine empowerment, can transcend the predisposition of instinct and point to a better way. In saints and spiritual giants of the past, we catch glimpses of what humankind could be at its best. I want to keep that vision alive in my heart.
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