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THE
PLACE OF ANIMALS IN THE CATHOLIC FAITH
21 FEBRUARY,
2019, Thursday, 6th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Genesis 9:1-13 ©
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The sign of the Covenant
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God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to
them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Be the terror and the dread of
all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on
the ground and all the fish of the sea; they are handed over to you. Every
living and crawling thing shall provide food for you, no less than the foliage
of plants. I give you everything, with this exception: you must not eat flesh
with life, that is to say blood, in it. I will demand an account of your life-blood.
I will demand an account from every beast and from man. I will demand an
account of every man’s life from his fellow men.
‘He who sheds man’s blood
shall have his blood shed by man,
for in the image of God
man was made.
‘As for you, be fruitful, multiply, teem
over the earth and be lord of it.’
God
spoke to Noah and his sons, ‘See, I establish my Covenant with you, and with
your descendants after you; also with every living creature to be found with
you, birds, cattle and every wild beast with you: everything that came out of
the ark, everything that lives on the earth. I establish my Covenant with you:
no thing of flesh shall be swept away again by the waters of the flood. There
shall be no flood to destroy the earth again.’
God
said, ‘Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every
living creature with you for all generations: I set my bow in the clouds and it
shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 101(102):16-21,29,22-23 ©
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The Lord looked down
from heaven to the earth.
The nations shall fear the name of the
Lord
and all the earth’s kings your
glory,
when the Lord shall build up Zion again
and appear in all his glory.
Then he will turn to the prayers of the
helpless;
he will not despise their
prayers.
The Lord looked down
from heaven to the earth.
Let this be written for ages to come
that a people yet unborn may
praise the Lord;
for the Lord leaned down from his
sanctuary on high.
He looked down from heaven to
the earth
that he might hear the groans of the
prisoners
and free those condemned to
die.
The Lord looked down
from heaven to the earth.
The sons of your servants shall dwell
untroubled
and their race shall endure
before you
that the name of the Lord may be
proclaimed in Zion
and his praise in the heart of
Jerusalem,
when peoples and kingdoms are gathered
together
to pay their homage to the
Lord.
The Lord looked down
from heaven to the earth.
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Gospel Acclamation
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James1:18
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Alleluia, alleluia!
By his own choice the Father made us his
children
by the message of the truth,
so that we should be a sort of
first-fruits
of all that he created.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are
life;
you have the message of eternal life.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Mark 8:27-33 ©
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The way you think is not God's way, but
man's
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Jesus and his disciples left for the
villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his
disciples, ‘Who do people say I am?’ And they told him. ‘John the Baptist,’
they said ‘others Elijah; others again, one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he
asked ‘who do you say I am?’ Peter spoke up and said to him, ‘You are the
Christ.’ And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
And
he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously,
to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be
put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite
openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But,
turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, ‘Get behind
me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’
THE PLACE OF
ANIMALS IN THE CATHOLIC FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ Gn 9:1-13; Ps 102:16-21,29,22-23; Mk 8:27-33]
Today, people are not
just promoting human rights but they are also promoting animal rights. In their love for animals, those
who hold an extreme position on animals elevate their rights almost equal to
that of human beings. The place of animals in the Catholic Faith is often
ambiguous. Do they have a soul? Can we see our departed animals in
the next life? Will they go to heaven? The good news is that the
Church has never made a pronouncement on this question in a definitive and
explicit manner. This gives us room for theological speculation.
Indeed, we have differing positions among Catholic theologians and even popes
on the matter of life after death for animals. So this remains an
open question. In other words, revelation does not give categorical
answers on this matter.
Whether we like it or
not, this world which we live in is a ruptured world. Since the start of creation, when
sin entered into the world through our first parents, the world has been
divided, torn apart by selfishness and evil. The paradise that God
intended for humanity was never realized. God wanted all of us to live a
harmonious life, not just among fellow human beings but with the whole of
creation. He created the world in perfect order but man destroyed the
order of creation because of pride, wanting to do things their own way.
This sin of pride, beginning with Adam and Eve who wanted to be like God
without God, then spread to Cain, whose pride was hurt when God showed favour
to Abel by accepting his gifts.
Indeed, when we look at
the intention of God’s plan for creation, it was to be something peaceful and
harmonious. The Lord gave man
authority over creation. “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth
and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Gn 1:28) Animals were meant to be the friends
of human beings. “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground
the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and
brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man
called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all
cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for
the man there was not found a helper as his partner.” (Gn 2:18-20)
It appears that human
beings were called to be vegans in the mind of God. He said, “See, I have given you
every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every
tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast
of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on
the earth everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green
plant for food.” (Gn 1:29f) After the sin
of Adam, the Lord still presumed that man would be a vegan for He said, “cursed
is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your
life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the
plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you
return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust
you shall return.” (Gn 3:18f)
But this harmonious
relationship between man and animals was severed after the entry of sin into
the world. If Cain could
kill his fellow brother, what will stop man from killing animals? (Gn 4:1-8) It is significant that a curse was
placed on Cain after he murdered his brother. “And now you are cursed from the
ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your
hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength;
you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” (Gn 4:11f) He became a nomad and no longer a
farmer. This curse is not the same as the curse that the Lord pronounced
on Adam earlier when he was supposed to grow food from the ground. (cf Gn 3:17-19) The situation worsened after Noah
in spite of the cleansing. “God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to
them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Be the terror and the
dread of all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven, of everything that
crawls and the ground and all the fish of the sea; they are handed over to
you.” Instead of living in peace with animals, now they were enemies of
the wild beasts. Then, they were vegans, but apparently God out of sympathy
for humanity, since the ground was cursed and no longer could grow crops, God
gave the concession to man to kill and eat animals. “Every living and
crawling thing shall provide food for you, no less than the foliage of plants.”
Yet the fact remains
that this perhaps was not in the original plan of God. That was why a special clause was
added. I give you everything, with this exception: you must not eat flesh
with life, that is to say blood, in it. I will demand an account of your
life-blood. I will demand an account from every beast and from
man.” Blood was considered to be consonant with life. Killing
animals for food was not the ideal but because of the need of human beings, it
was permitted out of concession. Indeed, in the Acts of the Apostles, St
Peter was given the vision of four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles,
and birds of the air. Then he heard a voice saying to him, “Get up,
Peter; kill and eat.” (Cf Acts 11:15-10) Hence, it would be wrong to say
that slaughtering animals for food is a sin, since man has been given dominion,
which means stewardship over creation, which entails proper use of them.
A similar case in point
is the question of divorce. Jesus made it clear, “It was because you were so
hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the
beginning it was not so.” (Mt 19:8) The ideal
remains that “what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mt 19:6) But we also know that the ideal does
not always happen because we are all sinful and broken people. That is
why the Church, whilst maintaining the indissolubility of marriage, advocates
compassion and understanding for those who are divorced and even remarried.
This is where we must evoke the law of gradualness.
However, there must also
be a clear distinction between man and animals as well. We are not equal. God said, “I will demand an account
of every man’s life from his fellow men. He who sheds man’s blood, shall
have his blood shed by man, for in the image of God man was made.” Whilst
we must respect animals and not allow them to suffer cruelly, they cannot be
raised to the dignity of human beings. “One can love animals; however one
should not direct to them the affection due only to persons”. (CCC 2418)
This is because we are created in the image and likeness of God. We share
in God’s intellect and will. We have a soul that is fully rational.
We can conceptualize ideas, know what is right and wrong, and the ability to
determine our choices. We also have a spirit that enables us to
communicate with God and develop a deep friendship with God. This is what
we mean when we say that we have an immortal soul.
Animals also have a
soul, but it is of a different level than human beings. Soul in this instance refers to the
animating principle that gives them life. That is why they can grow and
they can also feel and respond to external stimuli. But they cannot
choose or determine their lives like human beings do, although some of them
have a high degree of intelligence and will. Of course, with regard to
the question of the soul of animals, there are also different views as
well. St Thomas Aquinas holds that “souls” of animals are extinguished
upon death, unlike human beings. However, Pope John Paul II during
a public audience in 1990 taught that animals too are given the breath of life
by God. Indeed, the word “anima”, which means “soul”, is where the word
“animal” is derived. “However, other texts state that animals have the
breath of life and were given it by God. In this respect man, created by the
hand of God, is identical with all other living creatures.” Of course, it
does not mean that there is no distinction between the soul of a man and that
of an animal. Man remains unique because we are created in God’s image
and therefore killing of another man is a grave sin.
Nevertheless, it is not
wrong to hope that all animals will share in the transfiguration of heaven and
earth, as scripture says. Elijah’s
chariot with horses were taken into heaven. (cf 2 Kg 2:11f) Isaiah spoke
of a restored creation when man and animals live in harmony. “The wolf shall
live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the
lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and
the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion
shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole
of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s
den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;” (Isa 11:6-9 cf Isa 65:25) St Paul speaks of the fulfillment
of creation when he wrote, “We know that the whole creation has been
groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we
ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we
wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom 8:22-23) The book of Revelation says,
“Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in
the sea, and all that is in them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and
to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
(Rev 5:13)
This too is the hope of
Pope Francis when he wrote in Laudato Si, “At the end, we will find ourselves face to face
with the infinite beauty of God (cf. 1 Cor 13:12), and be able to read with
admiration and happiness the mystery of the universe, which with us will share
in unending plenitude. Even now we are journeying towards the sabbath of
eternity, the new Jerusalem, towards our common home in heaven. Jesus says: ‘I
make all things new’ (Rev 21:5). Eternal life
will be a shared experience of awe, in which each creature, resplendently
transfigured, will take its rightful place and have something to give those
poor men and women who will have been liberated once and for all.” (#
243)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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