Hot Pursuit

Loving Jesus like a cat and mouse game

04/01/2022

Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Jesus moved about within Galilee; he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him. But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret. Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, “Is he not the one they are trying to kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ? But we know where he is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.

All romantic relationships are ultimately a game of cat and mouse. That is, when a guy is attracted to a girl (and a girl to a guy), there ensues a sort of hot pursuit, where the boy is like the cat on the chase, and the girls is like the mouse trying to escape. Back in my heyday when I was young, the mice were a lot faster, and so I never could catch one, so I decided to become a priest. Of course, in the modern era the tables are sometimes turned and the mouse chases the cat, the girl is in hot pursuit of the boy. In any case, in all romantic relationships there is a cat and a mouse, a chasing and a playing hard to get.

Now the classic story of cat and mouse, the quintessential love story, is "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare. I understand the OCA 9th and 10th graders will be performing that play this weekend. I know they have been working hard and it will be great. Do you know my favorite line from the play? It is not spoken by Romeo or Juliet, but rather by Friar Lawrence. He was another cat who couldn’t catch a mouse, so he became a priest, too.

When Romeo is in hot pursuit of Juliet, the young lover says anxiously: “Oh, let us hence, I stand on sudden haste.” But the aged and wise friar responds: “Wisely and slowly. They stumble who run fast.” Tragically, neither Romeo nor Juliet paid heed to Friar Lawrence’s advice and in their haste they made waste and both cat and mouse stumbled into the same grave. Friar Lawrence’s wise words are a warning to all young lovers in hot pursuit. “Wisely and slowly. They stumble who run fast."

We see a little cat and mouse in the gospel of John today. Did you happen to catch it? We read: “The Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.” Now, all Jewish men at that time were required to attend 3 major feasts each year: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. It would be like Catholics always going to Mass on Christmas and Easter; the CEO Catholics who only go “Christmas and Easter Only.” But what does Jesus do for this third feast of Tabernacles? We read again: “But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.” Our Savior is sort of sneaking into Jerusalem like a sly mouse, and saying to the Jews who are like the cat: “Catch me if you can!”

I am convinced the best way to understand our Lord’s interaction with the Jews is as a romantic relationship; to see Jesus less as a Savior and more as a Spouse. St. Paul would say as much in Ep 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.” In other words, like the classic cat and mouse scenario of all romantic relationships, so too Jesus is the furtive mouse, and the people are the pouncing cat, who eventually catch Jesus and crucify him. But that saving death on the Cross was so that later Catholic cats – you and me – could catch Jesus and eventually eat him in the Eucharist. Try to think of your relationship with Jesus in terms of a cat and mouse game, and when you come up for Holy Communion, the cat catches and eats the Mouse.

Boys and girls, in all your romantic relationships – whether with one another or with Jesus – always remember the timeless counsel of Friar Lawrence: “Wisely and slowly. They stumble who run fast.” Sometimes in our hot pursuit of someone we love, we grow impatient and make major mistakes. Young people engage in intimacy with each other and do not wait until they are married. And what happens? They get pregnant and sometimes choose abortion. Wisely and slowly. They stumble who run fast.

So, too, in our relationship with Jesus. We eagerly desire to grow as a Christian but keep committing the same sins. We want to develop our prayer life but we run into distractions and dryness. We may feel called to be a priest or nun, but we want Jesus to tell us now, and not make us wait and wait and wait. And so, finally frustrated with our faith, we throw it out the window and run off in another direction. Wisely and slowly. They stumble who run fast.

Boys and girls, as you come forward to receive Holy Communion remember the game of cat and mouse. You are the Catholic cat who finally catches the miraculous Mouse, who is Jesus, and he lets you eat him. But at other times in our Christian life Jesus is like the Mouse who escapes and we cannot catch him. Jesus feels far from us and our faith feels weak. Be patient in your journey with Jesus and in your journey with one another. Wisely and slowly. They stumble who run fast.

Praised be Jesus Christ!