God Alone Knows.
Folks take great pride in their pets. Pomeranians, pugs, poodles, dachshunds, cocker spaniels, German shepherds and golden retrievers. They are family to them. They mourn their loss.
The pets are not very demanding. Nor is an infant. Their needs and wants revolve around food, comfort, walks, and sleep. Slip on any of them, and they are no more angels. They have bodily compulsions that must be attended to, or they will bring the roof down.
Humans can think, feel, and do. So do our fellow canines. They do think. For their security and the security of the hand that feeds them. They do feel when the weather turns harsh, or when they lose a mate or a family member. And they do. Fetch a ball or unearth drugs and trapped bodies or hunt down an assailant.
Domesticated dogs can also misunderstand a human gesture of affection. They perceive it as manhandling. They will attack should a hand be laid on their owner. They attack the points of contact between the two to free the one they hold dear. It could be jealousy too.
When a stranger enters the house, the child is suspicious. So is a dog. While a child is defenceless if the intent is sinister, the dog isn’t. Begs the question. Can they can tell right from wrong? Can they be held to account for the bad that they do? Yes, they are put to sleep on earth. Do they have an afterlife for further accountability?
A moot point for canines, but not so for human beings. There is accountability on earth as in the afterlife. Regardless of whether there is an afterlife or not, some men live their humanity on earth and others their inhumanity. Others (unless it is pathological or a tumour pressing the amygdala, triggering homicidal tendencies) justify their conduct as being for a larger cause.
This is where the question of right or wrong comes up. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:5)
Humans, biblically, are incapable of knowing good from evil. When we look around us, we see that it is true. Might is right. Power is heady. A coterie rules and brutalises. It attracts the corrupt and the infantile. They feel invincible. No more human. More Wolverine with unbridled power. Reckoning will come to them. Dead or behind bars.
Canines show more soul. One seemingly without a soul or conscience. Despite the lack, they know how to use their power. Despite their strength, they show great temperance. They attack only if they are attacked or when they have become pathologically deviant to maul the helpless.
When we gain power, or too much money for our own good, our conscience declines by the same measure. It goes dormant. We grow anaesthetised to sin. We don’t see it or feel it. We are not just dead, but have become deadly. Our values vaporise with the first contact with power and wealth. Power and wealth are needed to experience pride, lust, wrath, envy, gluttony, greed, and sloth. The potency of one makes the other impotent. What was always subtle now becomes anonymised. The medical conditions we suffer are not necessarily because of these sins, but they are contributory. So, let’s address it to be good with God.
Is being proud of our achievements pride? No, it is motivating. When does it become a sin? When we take a dim view of others. When we treat our God-given gift as something to hoard, not share. When we expect to be treated differently. Desire a place of distinction. (Mt 23:6)
Beauty is meant to be in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is to be appreciated. When beauty becomes objectified, that is, stripped of its humanness, it becomes lust. Humanity is respecting the other. Humanity is doing good for the other. Lust is the antithesis of being humane.
Wrath occurs because we are hurt. Hurt is like an iceberg. We are conscious of only a fraction of the hurt we feel. The rest is buried in our unconscious. We have accumulated hurts through our life. Some are from birth that we are not even aware of, and others have recently occurred. We can only do something about (if we want to) what we are aware of, not what we do not it even know exists. Which is why we are not able to understand why we get angry. Light or livid - both have consequences. The conscious: we must deal with the conscience. The unconscious: with prayer. We know we are succeeding or failing by the frequency of our outbursts.
Envy is easiest to handle. Don’t desire what you don’t have. Be happy for someone who does have. What you have, cherish it. Be grateful for it. When do we really cherish what we have? When it is taken away. Like during a power cut. We are grateful for uninterrupted power.
So is gluttony. Easily resolved. Stop eating beyond your needs. People do so in excess to compensate for a lack in their life. Peace, joy, love. This would seem contradictory. Those who are overweight or known to be jolly. Maybe gluttony perversely has its merits. People can also be genetically overweight, as some are lean just by genetics irrespective of their dietary habits. But to do it excessively just because you can is a sin when we live in a world where the larger majority on this planet cannot manage even one decent meal a day. Alcoholism, drugs, and loose living are other signs of excess just because we can. It is tragic when excessiveness results in starvation. When the powerful become powerless, and the rich must beg to live.
Greed is an issue of conscience like gluttony. If your only source of joy is depriving someone else of having their fill, then a God who is compassionate is unlikely to be kind to those who are not. Slothfulness is also a form of greed. Greed for binge-watching shows. Greed to skip one’s responsibility and lay the burden on another to provide. Hibernation is for bears and alligators. They are ectothermic. They can live without food for months. Man cannot. Not to work is a sin.
How worthy are we? Better than canines? Better be. They are animals. They don’t have to account for their deeds on earth. You and I do.
- Mathew Anthony
