The incomplete life & sayings of Dwight the #theologycat, part IV, first half of 2023
Highlights from Dwight's #CATechesis, from the beginning of the year of our Lord 2023, through to the present date
Gentle reader,
Perhaps you’ve met Dwight, my #theologycat. He appears fairly regularly on my social media feeds. Below, a collection of Dwight’s CATechesis from this year, so far.
“I trust this cat more than I trust most people!” — a Dwight fan, on Facebook
Cats remind us of the fact that dominion doesn't always look like we think it ought to look. Dwight purrs to that.
Dwight wants you to remember that God is nearer than we know. Kinda like a cat in your face.
Today, Dwight is helping me to write an essay. It's good to support each other in the work. (You can see that the labor is difficult for him, but he shoulders it bravely.)
Dwight is thinking about how God “pitched his tent among us” (Jn 1:14). Dwight is pitching his tent in this box until he decides to get up to supervise the birdfeeder.
Dwight wants you to look him in the eye & remember that God knows when a sparrow falls & numbers the hairs on your head. You are known & you are loved. (Dwight is attuned to sparrows too, but for less tender reasons).
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps 133:1). Dwight finds it especially pleasant when you know you’re the king of the castle, but this is not a biblical principle.
Dwight is always #unfiltered, as we all are in the eyes of God.
Dwight knows that getting enough sleep is an appropriate embrace of finitude & reliance on providence.
Dwight is casting no pearls before swine, & he invites you into the freedom not to do so either.
Dwight’s sweet new digs have him grooving on how good it is that our Father’s house has many rooms. Dwight also thinks there will be many cats.
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Dwight is content with the fact that beasts don't receive the sacraments. He’s happy to be a sacramental instead.
Dwight is quoting CS Lewis “my cat & dog live together in my house & seem to like it. It may have been one of man’s functions to restore peace to the animal world, and if he had not joined the enemy he might have succeeded in doing so to an extent now hardly imaginable.”
Dwight suggests: lean back, unclench, relax into the stillness of knowing God is God.
Dwight wonders, why do I call him “Kit Kat” all the time? Is it like Jacob's name becoming Israel? Is it because he wrestles with me so very well?
When I give Dwight a little pile of crunchy treats, he picks up the first one & shakes it to break its neck. Adorable. Unnecessary. Theologians sometimes mistake gifts of grace for things to be subdued.
Dwight believes that the kitchen mat exists to serve as a backdrop to his beauty. Theologians are prone to misreading context through a rather narrow & selfish lens.
Dwight would like to stalk you & pounce. This is not a healthy habit for a theologian.
Dwight knows he is the uncontested center of this little ecosystem. Everyone does theology from a viewpoint, and no theologian understands their own viewpoint without bias.
Dwight is on alert. Like Mad Eye Moody says, “constant vigilance!” Or better, like Jesus, “keep awake!”
Could Dwight escape through this window? Theologians are always looking for loopholes.
Dwight believes he can stop the roomba in its tracks by staring it down. A lot of theologians have rather outsized ideas about their own powers.
Yesterday, Dwight got outside while I wasn’t looking & spent some time in the cold dark. As you can see from his fluffy belly, he is clearly an indoor cat & is back inside where he belongs. There are realms theologians had best not enter.
Dwight ran into unexpected bounty last night, because someone left a bit of halibut in their bowl. May we all experience many foretastes of the feast to come!
Dwight would like to announce that his favorite thing is the hypostatic union.
Dwight is quoting Teresa of Ávila; “What will He not give Who so much loves giving and can give all that He will?” For instance, says Dwight, the Good Giver gave him this very good tail.
Dwight meets roses: a love story.
May the goodness of creation captivate you too.
Dwight is an icon of vulnerability.
He’s quoting CS Lewis “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
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Dwight invites us into the season of Ordinary Time,
for growth & maturation
& lazy cuddles
& basking in the sun,
free of the great mysteries,
free for the daily mysteries,
for manna & for prayer,
the favorite liturgical season of catdom.
Dwight, still meditating on Ordinary Time, thinking of CS Lewis's description of the good rule of the kings and queens of Narnia;
"And they made good laws and kept the peace and saved good trees from being unnecessarily cut down, and liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary people who wanted to live and let live.”
Dwight is praising the goodness of a creator who made such things as birds and purrs.
Dwight imagines that Jeremiah 17:8 is about him; "He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
You have heard it said, “I am fast. To give you a reference point, I’m somewhere between a snake and a mongoose… and a panther” (Dwight Shrute), but Dwight cat says unto you, “have you seen me leap?”
You have heard it said “Democracy is essentially a political system that recognizes the equality of humans before the law” (Dwight Eisenhower), but Dwight cat says unto you, “the equality of humans is a kingdom reality.”
You have heard it said “I am sure the happiest days of my life have been when I have tried to do the will of God …” (Dwight Moody), but Dwight cat says unto you, “those are all my days.”
The God who watches over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps.
Dwight, on the other hand, sleeps a lot, but he'‘ still a pretty serious watcher-over.
"The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night." (Ps 121:5-6)
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Dwight invites us to contemplate the extraordinary fact of being made co-heirs with Jesus. For his part, Dwight is content with being the house cat of heirs.
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Dwight is quoting Isaac Watts:
I love the windows of thy grace,
Through which my Lord is seen,
And long to meet my Saviour’s face,
Without a glass between.
Dwight is quoting Dorothy Sayers;
“It it is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality, unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It is a lie to say that dogma does not matter; it matters enormously. It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe. It is hopeless to offer Christianity as a vaguely idealistic aspiration of a simple and consoling kind; it is, on the contrary, a hard, tough, exacting, and complex doctrine, steeped in a drastic and incompromising realism. And it is fatal to imagine that everybody knows quite well what Christianity is and needs only a little encouragement to practice it. The brutal fact is that in this Christian country not one person in a hundred has the faintest notion what the Church teaches about God or man or society or the person of Jesus Christ.... ...Theologically this country is at present is in a state of utter chaos established in the name of religious toleration and rapidly degenerating into flight from reason and the death of hope.”
Dwight wonders who put these carrots in his meat. He is good at discernment & reminds us today that discernment is central to the Christian life.
Grace & peace,
BFJ
As always, I’m grateful if you choose to forward, share, or subscribe. This piece contains associate links.
If you’ve enjoyed Dwight’s #CATechesis, you can find previous installments here.
I had not yet met Dwight before this, but I am the better for it.