Most of us like dogs. Dogs are one of God’s programs. Why did He go to all the trouble of programming them?
Catholic Fundamentalism believes that God wrote and downloaded the basic Dog Program so that we’d have something handy to let us see how we should deal with our Lord and Master.
He programmed many of us to enjoy modifying His Basic Dog Program to download yappy Yorkshires, majestic Mastiffs, and woebegone Bloodhounds. We’d enjoy the work of designing them to do different jobs for us.
Dogs are nearly as bright as we, but they do have free will. They can decide to make a mess in the house or go outside. They can decide to chew up things or not. They can choose to obey the command “Heel!” or run after a cat. There seems to be some similarity in the intelligence gap between God and man and man and dog.
Most of a dog’s problems come from not obeying their master and making wrong choices. If a dog fails to obey too often, they may end up in the pound. Similarly, human problems occur when we make the wrong choices. If we disobey the Master too arrogantly, we end up in the human version of the pound. Forever.
If we’re smart, we study Scripture, the Catechism, and the saints to help ascertain the Master’s will. The harder we strive to be obedient, the better we do. As we pray, work, and learn, we will be more obedient to God.
One of the highest planes of human existence is to use our free will as well as we want our dog to use his. Be as obedient as you want your dog to be. God will cherish us as much as we cherish an obedient, loyal dog.
John 15: 14 is clear about what Jesus requires. “You are my friends if you obey My commands.” That is a very big “if”, possibly the biggest “if” there is. The Sacraments provided by The Only Church He Founded make obeying His commands far, far easier.
Just be as good as you want your dog to be. It’s a beginning.
