^{I give this to Jesus by the hands of His mother}

Romans 8:15 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.”

1.) To those who suffer

First, I want to say to everyone who has struggled and currently struggles understanding their God-given identity: “God loves you so much; He made you in His image and likeness which is a mystery we will never plumb the depths of this side of heaven. Let us follow Jesus to find the path forward.”

2.) A little different style

            Usually, I pick a scene or character from a show, but for this movie I’ll walk through the plot in an annotated way because the movie is short and is best treated as a whole.

3.) A 21 year old movie

            The Cat Returns was released by Studio Ghibli in 2002 as a spin off to their earlier success Whisper of the Heart. I watched it for the first time just two weeks ago and was surprised by how well it spoke to our culture in the 20+ years it’s been around. It’s only 75 minutes, so go watch it if you’re able.

An unsatisfied heart

            Our story begins with school girl Haru Yoshioka who wonders if she even has a place in this world. Home life is bland, she comes to school late regularly, her crush started dating the prettiest girl at school, she almost gets hit by a truck trying to save a cat, and nothing seems to go right. So when the king of cats shows up and wants her to move to the “Cat Kingdom”(TM) and marry the cat prince she saved, she freaks out “I’m not a cat this is ridiculous!” but then she wonders: “Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad, after all what do I have going for me here?”

            Perhaps you haven’t experienced this in your life. But when I see problems going on in almost every area of my life, it’s easy to say: “The world and I don’t get along, and changing my habits isn’t enough because it’s not about what I do it’s about who I am. If only I were [fill in the blank] then I wouldn’t have these problems, if only I were [fill in the blank] then the pain and anxiety would go away.”

If you’ve never thought something like that, then God bless you, But for those who have, please notice one thing. The focus shifts from the particular problems in our life to our identity itself, and because the focus is now on ourselves it is also we that must do all the work – we’ve left no space for God.

Back to the story:

Haru doesn’t have much time to think the offer over before she stumbles upon a stray cat (Muta), a cat figurine (The Baron), and a crow (Toto) who want to help her out. They agree with her original thought that moving to the Cat Kingdom is ridiculous. To calm her worries Baron tells her discover where you truly belong and then you’ll have nothing to worry about. Before they can talk any further, however, the cat kingdom comes out of nowhere and sweeps Haru away to their homeland, with Muta and Baron chasing after them.

            What’s fascinating is that once Haru arrives in the Cat Kingdom it’s very explicit that she doesn’t belong there. Keep in mind Baron’s words to her previously: “Find where you belong and you won’t need to worry.” It’s clear she doesn’t belong in the Cat Kingdom which implies that she needs to return to the human world. But there is a point of no return. By simply being in the cat Kingdom, Haru starts transforming into a cat. Even if she doesn’t actively will it, she picks up the culture she is surrounded by. She must return to the human world by dawn in order to become human again.

            Disoriented by her transformation, Haru finds herself gloomily accepting her new life, until the Baron breaks in to rescue her. A passing friendship she almost turned down has come into this foreign land to bring her back. Does Baron assert his worldview onto Haru’s new life style? Yes, because she is not where she belongs. How does the Cat King feel about this? He’s outraged. He doesn’t want anyone leaving his kingdom. To secure Haru’s permanent place the king wants her to marry his son and if she won’t then she’ll marry the king himself! Haru of course by this point wants to return with Baron to her world and rebukes the king to his face. What caught my attention here was the subtle censorship in the English dialogue. While the subtitles read “you crazy king” the Japanese word Haru uses means “pervert.” It is the king’s lust that has driven him crazy.

            In their route to escape Haru, Muta, and the Baron must cross a labyrinth and climb a tower at the top of which is a portal that leads to the human world. This task seems hopeless, but Muta starts climbing and running along the walls of the maze proclaiming “we don’t have to play by their rules!” They are going home; they don’t need to follow the cat’s rules. As they start to climb the tower Haru slows down being exhausted by the whole things. “I’ll catch up, go on ahead” she says to her friends. To which Baron simply picks her up and carries her the rest of the way. We should not think we can do everything ourselves, even under the disguise of ‘go ahead I’ll catch up.’ This is a great foil to Haru’s earlier line when she first meets Baron and says “I got into this mess, I have to get myself out.” She learns first hand that it’s okay to be carried by our friends.

As we enter the last section pay attention to the back and forth of hope and despair.

In a last-ditch effort, the cat king is crazy enough to destroy the tower leaving the portal sitting in the sky unreachable. The goal is in sight but seemingly unobtainable. Even when Haru miraculously reaches the portal and comes back into the human world she’s floating in the middle of the sky! What seemed to offer her a way back now seems to only offer death! She falls and prepares for the worse, but the Baron and Muta also made it through the portal and they tell her to look down, in other words: face her fear, confront the thing the seems to only be certain death. It is then that we see Toto (the crow from before) – who didn’t make it into the cat kingdom, but waited for Haru to return. He has brought his friends with him too and they swarm the three falling friends gently letting Haru come back to earth. If she had not looked down, she would not have been caught by the friends that awaited her on the other side.  

In the closing scenes we see how Haru has changed despite going back to what was her “normal life.” She gets up early, makes breakfast, and is confident in herself. Her crush who was dating a prettier girl no longer has any effect on her. I skipped over a detail earlier to bring it up now. Baron, who is a cat figurine, knows he is a toy come to life. He knows his Creator i.e. his father, and knows that it is out of love that he has come to life. He stated this clearly when first meeting Haru. In short, he is confident in his identity – he knows where he belongs and so has nothing to worry about. And Haru too, with the example of Baron to show her the way, knows where she belongs and now has nothing to worry about.

4.) It’s almost over I promise

This may come across as a one-sided persuasive speech. But I mean this for everyone: those struggling with understanding their God-given identity and those who aren’t; those who know someone who is and those who have never met someone suffering in this way. If even one of the four characters in The Cat Returns had been missing, the myriad of challenges would not have been overcome. Each of us play an active part. These crosses are not born by telling someone what to do, but rather – like Simon the Cyrene – stepping in to help carry them.