In Leah Libresco’s piece, Give Us Our Daily Hedgehog, we are reminded of the lion Aslan saved in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The lion becomes so thrilled to be included in Aslan’s reference to “Us lions” that he can’t hide his exuberance. He is stilled, however when Aslan loads him up with the other magical creatures to carry to safety. Leah, writes:
But what I love best of all is the wide range of people it takes for him to be steadied. The lion isn’t simply loaded up with as many dwarves or dryads as he can bear. Instead, I have the delightful mental image of Aslan looking him over, and saying, “Ok, he can’t take any more dwarves, but he still needs a hedgehog’s worth of gravity to be properly grounded.”
As Catholics we should all be so thrilled to be grouped in with our Savior as the lion was, but we often forget this jubilant feeling as the weight of His cross falls on our shoulders. Hedgehogs are adorable, but they are covered in quills which are easy to prick ourselves on.
And today we celebrate...