It was a few days before Easter when we first spotted them: two wolves, crouching on the church lawn, faces snarling, poised to leap.
Have I told you before that I have A Thing about wolves? They might count as what one might call a “familiar” – I think there’s some sort of demons/witches involvement in that term, but what I always think of is something akin to a symbolic animal or even a muse. Something that shows up in various forms and fashions throughout your life, possibly at Important Times, and takes on some sort of personal significance. It was hard not to read something meaningful into their appearance, is what I’m telling you.
The church lawn wolves were plastic or plaster or some other inanimate material, but they were startling nonetheless.
It’s a Catholic church, I think; I know nothing of Catholicism, and not much about religion in general. My mom would know, I thought. She attends church regularly and reads books about religion and religious texts and has deep discussions with her pastor.
Alas. She didn’t know! We speculated for a few minutes about their theological significance. Maybe the wolves were somehow related to the Easter season. Maybe they were supposed to signify the wolves that are trying to attack Jesus’s “flock.” Maybe they were the church mascot. Maybe there was some little-known Bible story we were forgetting/hadn’t attended to very well.
We decided that I would call the church. I was a little reluctant to do this; I don’t like making phone calls, and I was unsure who to ask. But my mom was confident that WHOEVER answered the phone would be delighted to answer my question, and would probably go into great detail with his/her answer.
Over the Easter weekend, I pondered the wolves. I combed through my memory of Bible stories. I examined the Easter season from multiple angles. I dressed the wolves in various metaphorical costumes. Nothing seemed right.
My first call was fruitless. The recorded voice – someone who had been coached to speak clearly and to enunciate and to speak much more slowly than he might normally do – gave a long list of options from which I could choose. None of them sounded right. Did I need to be connected to the priest? Probably not? The parish? I… have no idea. The school? No, that one’s definitely a no. The accounting office? Nope. The final option was to stay on the line, but no one ever answered.
I called back later, went through the list once more, and stayed on the line. This time my call was answered, and so was my question:
The wolves are there to scare the geese.
No theological significance at all.
I’ve heard that owl statues do the same, especially if their eyes light up like a motion detector……hmmm. wolves at church would have make me wonder as well.
I’m so impressed you called! Twice!