God Saw That It Was Good: A Safari Through Salvation History

INTRODUCTION

My in-laws hate animals. They are the sweetest, kindest, most loving people that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, but that love does not extend into the realm of the animal kingdom. My wife inevitably imbibed some of their perspective. So, during our marriage preparation class, the only serious concern our priest had for our impending matrimony was that I loved animals and she did not. He asked, Is having pets a problem that both of you can work through lovingly and in an amicable way? We confidently agreed, yes.

Then one evening, a year or so after we were married, my mom called and asked us to babysit a kitten over the weekend while she went out of town. We agreed, and Bella came over to stay at our home and has never left.

What happened that night that caused this change in my wife’s heart? As we lay in bed, sleeping soundly, we were both awakened by a soft mewing sound at the foot of our bed. We glanced down and found Bella, snaking her way through a maze of jumbled blankets to lay her tiny body between us and rest by our side. As she slept peacefully, her soft purrs and cat snores could be heard, and they melted away my wife’s animal-hardened heart.

Now, almost three years and two indoor cats later, my wife has been won over to the animal kingdom. She asked me the other evening if I knew how much she loved Bella. I replied, no. She then told me that her love for Bella was limitless.

She may have been exaggerating slightly, but what she said shows how animals can actually help us glimpse the divine. In this instance, because of a cat, my wife was able to gain a tangible understanding of what it means to love through the depths and heights of infinity—the love that only describes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I hope this book brings you the same gift my wife experienced, a glimpse of God through his creation on the backs, whiskers, scales, and wings of our furry and sometimes not so furry friends. This is not a book of biblical commentary on passages of Scripture, theological reflections, or a book about the lives of the saints, though there are some of these things in each chapter. This book is a collection of some of the more famous and not so famous stories about animals in the Bible, the lives of saints, and sometimes from my own life, presented to you to not only learn of these amazing tales about animals, but to also appreciate how God uses his creation to draw us closer to him and guide us to the life he wants us to live.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in paragraph #2415, Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity, and in paragraph #2416, Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. I hope this book can in some way illuminate these teachings and kindle in our hearts a love and appreciation for all God’s creatures.

Perhaps you have lost some of the wonder and joy of life somewhere along the way. God and his beauty are always surrounding us in the most intriguing and fun ways. It is my aim that some of these quirky stories and thoughts will bring a smile to your face and help to reopen the eyes of faith in your heart.

THE NOBLE DONKEY

Samson used a jawbone of an ass to slay a thousand Philistines. Imagine what you can do with an entire ass.

—ST. JOHN VIANNEY

I’m a high school math teacher. This is a position I have loved and tried to carry out to the best of my ability for the past fifteen years. However, since becoming married, I unknowingly acquired another, sort of unofficial, job and title at work, that of cheer donkey.

You might be asking, what on earth is a cheer donkey? My wife is a national champion cheerleading coach at the high school in Arkansas where we both work. When I married her, I also married into the sport of cheerleading. I found myself attending practices and competitions, not because I know anything at all about competitive cheerleading, but because I discovered I am really good at carrying things for my wife and the girls on the team. I can carry pom poms, megaphones, lipstick, hair spray, bows, signs, audio equipment, backpacks, and other cheerleading essentials to and from these practices and competitions. Over the years, instead of a pack mule, I have been lovingly named by the girls, the cheer donkey.

That’s fine with me. I’m not at all unhappy about being named after a donkey. In fact, I think it’s a shame that such a noble creature, with so many amazing stories in Scripture and the lives of saints, is now associated with a curse word.

One thing I have learned about being a cheer donkey for a high school cheerleading team is that it is never about the cheer donkey. It is always about the girls and my wife. I do whatever I can to try and make their performances easier and less stressful by keeping my head down and my mouth shut, while moving their equipment wherever they may need me to move it. I simply try to serve, not be served. It is not about me. This is one of the great virtues that real donkeys throughout salvation history have taught us about our spiritual lives.

Donkeys in the Bible

Sacred Scripture utilizes the donkey as a symbol of humility because it is truly an animal for the poor that brings down those perceived to be mighty.¹ In several instances in the Old and New Testaments, a donkey also points our gaze toward God’s power and the coming of the long-awaited Messiah.

Granted, our first instance is a bit gruesome.

In the Book of Judges 15:15–17, Samson picks up the jawbone of an ass (aka, a donkey) and uses it to slay one thousand Philistines in battle. In this story, Samson’s wife is murdered by the Philistines and he vows to take revenge against them. Samson is then captured and brought to the Philistine camp, when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and gives him the strength to break his bonds. Free of confinement, he finds the jawbone of an ass lying on the ground. Grasping it in his hand, he fights off and slays one thousand of his captors. After the battle, Samson tosses his blood-soaked weapon into the air in victory, forever naming the field of battle as Ramath-lehi, which in Hebrew means Jawbone Hill.

Theologian John A. Grindel, CM, says, When Samson sees the Philistines the spirit of the Lord comes upon him, moving him once again to extraordinary action.² This extraordinary action is not only God’s power over his creation, but also the power of a humble faith in God. A donkey’s jawbone is only about nine inches in length.³ The proud Philistines, attacking Samson on all sides with swords much stronger and longer than a simple jawbone, must have been supremely confident rushing at Samson to strike him down. How the mighty were humbled on the battlefield that day by the simple, long-discarded remains of an animal used by the poor of Israel for their everyday needs. God truly humbles those who consider themselves mighty and raises up the lowly.

Another example of a donkey being used as a symbol of humility in Scripture is located in the Old Testament book of Zechariah. In this account, the humble donkey is one of the signs used in prophecy to identify the coming of the King of Israel. Zechariah 9:9 says, Exult greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! Behold: your king is coming to you, a just savior is he, Humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This statement was probably laughed at by many in Israel as they awaited a messiah to come and conquer their foes. A king riding atop a long-eared, buck-toothed, pot-bellied donkey hardly fits the description of a mighty king who will restore the temple and the kingdom of Israel. In fact, the donkey is a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn from the image of a war horse, clad in armor, with a splendid figure of a king mounted on it. The donkey in this prophecy is a sign used to signify a changing of expectation for what God has in store for his chosen people: not a mighty king, but a humble one, like his lowly mount, who has come to restore hearts, not land or title.

Jesus then fulfills this prophecy of Zechariah in Matthew 21:1–9. These verses are the biblical account of Palm Sunday, or Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, with the donkey as his chosen war horse.

When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me. And if anyone should say anything to you, reply, ‘The master has need of them.’ Then he will send them at once. (Matt. 21:1–3)

This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

Say to daughter Zion, Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them. They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them as he sat upon them. The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest. (Matt. 21:5–9)

Biblical scholar Mary Margaret Pazdan, OP, comments on Zechariah that the Messiah will be ‘meek’ in his corresponding role as servant.⁴ Because the donkey is a symbol of humility and the poor, the way in which the Messiah enters Jerusalem is an indication of the type of king he will be.

From these two biblical texts also comes the traditional meaning of the stripe located on the donkey’s back. The donkey was honored by Christ, tradition says, for his triumphant ride into Jerusalem. The dark stripe running down its back and crossed by another at its shoulders was said to be bestowed by Jesus, prophetic of the crucifixion, as an honorable badge for its part in redemption.⁵

The cross on the donkey’s back can also be a reminder for Christians of our humble walk with Christ. Everywhere the donkey goes, the cross goes with him. Like the donkey, we too have to pick up our crosses, whatever they may be, place them on our backs, and humbly carry them to Jesus, so that he may defeat them as he did his own.

Donkey and Mule in the Lives of Saints

Once we learn how God has used the donkey as a humble identifier for the coming Messiah, it should not come as a shock that our hairy friend and his half-brother the mule are also major characters in the history of the Church, particularly in the lives of the saints.

St. Anthony of Padua was a Portuguese priest and Franciscan friar during the thirteenth century. There is a famous story involving him and a mule that takes place in the city of Bourges, France, or as some accounts say, Rimini, Italy.⁶

Anthony was known as a great miracle worker and preacher. A Jewish man by the name of Guillard would often listen to Anthony preach the Catholic faith, and though interested in what the friar had to say, he could not come to terms with the doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Guillard asked Anthony for a sign that would prove to him that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist, and Anthony agreed. If God gave Guillard the sign that he asked for, he said that he would convert to the Catholic faith. With terms agreed, Anthony and Guillard devised a challenge to test the teaching of the Real Presence.

The challenge went as follows: Guillard had a mule that he would lock up in a room without food for three days. After three days, the mule would be taken to a public square in front of all the people and offered oats by Guillard. Anthony was to be carrying the sacred host in a monstrance, a transparent container used to expose and venerate the Eucharist. If the mule did not eat the oats, but instead knelt before the host, Guillard said that he would truly believe.

St. Anthony fasted and prayed for three days in preparation for the challenge. At the end of the third day,