The same Donkey that brought Jesus to Jerusalem died on Saturday. Here is a fable story of the Donkey and its immense part on Jesus life. (This is part of another project in the works called Book of Hours.)
FRIDAY — 8 PM — 4 hours after Jesus’ death
There was a palpable silence everywhere around the Empire. That dead silence also invaded the village near Bethphage on the Mount of Olives where the donkey who had carried Jesus into the streets of Jerusalem lived. The donkey belonged to a family of small traders in that region, but his lineage was a royal one. It is said that he was an offspring of the donkey who spoke to Balaam. There was something in that lineage of donkeys that made them speak, even though very few people could hear them. That family — the owners of the donkey who carried Jesus — did not know of that lineage themselves, but that donkey knew his ancestors. It was something passed down from donkey to donkey. The family who owned the Donkey used to rent him to other people for specific tasks, for a certain amount of money.
That donkey was really old and they were surprised by the specific request from Jesus. That was the donkey Jesus wanted, and no other would be accepted. The donkey had done his share as a “beast of burden,” working very hard his entire life. He felt he couldn’t do much more, but the tasks kept coming. That day he was very tired and didn’t want to do anything else, but he had no choice. As he never did. He was taken by some men who brought him to Jesus. He couldn’t see very clearly anymore, or hear that well.
When he got there, he realized he was going to carry a man. That was going to be hard. He was approaching the end of his life and had very little strength left in him. But for some reason, that day was very unusual. The buzzing of shouts and the craziness of so many people at the same time were really troubling him. Jesus finally got on his back. All that euphoria made it very difficult to carry Jesus. He felt Jesus tightening his legs around his body, for Jesus was also afraid to fall. But to feel Jesus’ legs holding him tight and pulling the reins made him feel safer.
Jesus was a heavy cargo, he was old. He started to feel scared as the crowds approached Jesus, and tried to make noise as a way of speaking to Jesus about the dangers of that walk. But his voice was rusty and weak, Jesus did not hear him. But he was used to it — nobody ever interacted with him directly or had any interest in hearing him. The only donkey that was ever heard was the one who spoke to Balaam. Besides him, no one would be interested in listening to a donkey or exchanging some form of affection. He was just a beast, a stupid donkey, an animal whose existence meant work and nothing else. No subjectivity, no possibility for happiness, no playfulness, no warmth could be attached to the life of a donkey. Just work. Every day he would eat some, rest some, and work a lot. When Donkeys like him could no longer do their work, they would be sacrificed because there was not much food to give to useless donkeys. He knew his end was approaching fast.
But that day held a surprise. From the very beginning, Jesus treated him with kindness, and he couldn’t understand it. It felt like they knew each other, but he did not remember where or how or why. His sense of smell was not as potent anymore, but he was trying to sniff Jesus to get some hint. Once the procession ended, Jesus got off the donkey and approached him very closely, up to his face. While the multitude were still shouting, Jesus knelt down, looked into his eyes, and kissed his head. The donkey started to sniff Jesus’ face and hair, and like a strike of thunder, he remembered the smell. It was baby Jesus! He knew he was smelling that baby he had once knewn so well. His memories overflowed and overwhelmed him.
He was the donkey who had carried Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Joseph when they were fleeing from Herod. The smell of Jesus made him remember the coldness of the route, the anxiety of Joseph, the fear of Mary carrying a baby, and the warmth, finally, of the manger. He remembered the scent of the newborn baby. That had been the most dangerous ride he had ever made in his life, and he could never forget it. During that journey, he had feared for his life and the lives of this family the whole way. It was a long and troubled ride, and they would stop in so many places trying to rest but could never find anyone who would allow them to stay. The presence of fear and urgency were so strong.
Remembering all of that story and now seeing that it was that same baby Jesus now mounting him, his heart was filled with such overwhelming joy that he started crying so loud he couldn’t stop. For a while his hee-haws were so intense that even the sound of the multitude grew softer. Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw! He was crying out so loud he was losing his balance. People thought he was dying. Nobody understood why that donkey was screaming so loud.
But Jesus knew why, and calmed him down. Jesus knew him because of the stories his father used to tell him. Joseph used to tell Jesus of a valiant and brave donkey who had crossed the desert and many cities with them when he was about to be born. Joseph told Jesus how brave and warm that donkey was. Jesus remembered when his father told him about a donkey who was so loud, so very emotional, that he would participate with his hee-haws in everything they did. Joseph and Mary would laugh when telling Jesus the story of his birth — because while they were so afraid of Herod and anxious to find a place to stay, they also had a donkey that cried out loud nonstop, whether he was happy, sad, or anxious: Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Jesus remembered that Joseph told him that the very minute Jesus was born, the donkey heard his cry and started crying so loud they couldn’t stop him. They didn’t know what to do. All they could hear was Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Even baby Jesus crying was muffled by the cries of the donkey.
Joseph tried to calm him down, but a force within the donkey would not rest. It was only when Mary took the baby and held him close to the donkey that he began to settle. When Joseph placed baby Jesus in front of the donkey — still naked, still covered in blood — he smelled him and slowly stopped crying. Then Jesus’ cry filled the manger, and the donkey grew calm.
Having grown up with those stories of a loud and funny donkey, Jesus had wanted to visit him once more before either of them would die. When the donkey smelled Jesus, he was so happy that again, he started crying again: Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw!
His hee-haws filled the air and nobody could stop him. His cry was so deep, such a mixture of joy and sadness, that it shook Jesus to his core — as if his body remembered the first minutes of being born into the world, when that particular sound had welcomed him. It was not the trumpets or the angels, not the Magi or the stars, that issued the deepest welcome to Jesus on earth. It was a donkey — the loving, desperate cry of a donkey. At that moment, as his donkey was crying out his hee-haws, Jesus felt that heaven and earth had connected. It was not the cries of the people but the hee-haw of his donkey that prepared Jesus for what was coming.
As the donkey would not stop his crying, Jesus’ spirit was shaken. Jesus looked into the donkey’s oceanic eyes, began crying himself, and with his lips close to the donkey’s ears, said: “Thank you. Thank you for everything. Thank you for protecting me and my family. Thank you for welcoming me to the earth. Thank you for giving your life for me. I am grateful to you. I don’t think anybody loved me more than you did. I honor you. You have never left my heart. I will be waiting for you soon in the kin-dom of all species, and we will play together. You will have the life that you should have lived here but never did.”
At that moment the donkey stopped crying. They finished their journey. Jesus kissed him on his forehead and said: “I never forgot your eyes, and I never will.”
The donkey was then taken back home. Five or six days later, he started to feel sick. He lay down and could not get up. From a distance, he heard his owner coming into the house saying that a man named Jesus had died. Immediately, he started hee-hawing frantically, but soon his voice started to grow dimmer and dimmer. He had always been desperate about everything. He had seen too many things, felt far too much. He had always felt misplaced. His hee-haws were screams of awareness, alerting people to something they should pay attention to before it was too late — whether a joy not to be missed, or a danger approaching them. He was always trying to tell people something, always something important. But he was almost never heard. Joseph and Mary were the only ones who had fully listened to him. And now Jesus. His heart grew quiet. Until his last breath. He was gone. He was ready to meet his Jesus in a new hee-haw land.
***
Donkeys all over the world are losing their lives. In Brazil, the donkeys are said to be extinct by 2030 for it has become meat to serve the Chinese market. Donkeys were domesticated 10,000 years ago and have walked with humans ever since. Donkeys were spread all around the world and have shaped villages, cities and empires. They are still fundamental to local economies in poorer areas of the earth. Donkeys can carry almost two thirds of their body weight, go without water for 2-3 days and eat almost anything. They are resilient and kind. They are part of the equine species. The mules instead are hybrid animals, resulting from the crossbreeding of a donkey with a mare (female horse). The mules are sterile. Donkeys are known as the “beast of burden,” and they often worth very little which made them be constantly abused.
The history of the donkey’s worthlessness is old. Juliana Fausto says that “In the world of ancient Greece, they figured among the lowest of the mounted animals, being considered stupid, gluttonous, socially second-rate, and comparable to slaves and women.” The histories of horror and degradation of donkeys are vast.
In Brazil, if you are illiterate or stupid or make an ass of yourself you are called a donkey: burro. In general animals are below the value of humanity and that allows humans to do whatever we want with them: play, use, abuse, harm, eat, kill, do whatever we humans want. Donkeys however, inhabit an even lower level of worthlessness in the history of humankind even though they have been fundamental to build the so-called “human civilization.” Without them we would have a very different history.
Due to other forms of transportation and work, donkeys are fading away from the need and the imagination of people.
However, they have been very prominent in folklore and in the arts. In the backlands of the Northeast of Brazil, the donkeys have a deep tradition with the law and the lore of the land, participating actively in lives of the people, and on the land. In fact, donkeys have become the backbone of the sustenance of so many people. So much so that the popular religious traditions in Brazil create ways to make donkeys more honorable. One of the many folk songs says that Frei Vieira, a very important Roman Catholic priest in Brazil, has said that the donkey is our brother.
The lyrics of the song: “Apologies to the Donkey” by Luiz Gonzaga tells the story of the donkey in the lives of the people:
Father Vieira said
That the donkey is our brother.
The donkey is our brother, whether you like it or not.
The donkey has always been the greatest “developer”
of the backlands…
You are a patriot, you are a great Brazilian
I’m here, donkey, to recognize your worth, my brother…
Now, my patriot, on behalf of my backlands
Accept our tribute
Oh, donkey, our brother
Juliana Fausto mentions several movies with donkeys: EO by Jerzy Skolimowski, Le Ballon Rouge by Albert Lamorisse, Bim, The Little Donkey and Magdana’s Donkey by Rezo Chkheidze and Tengiz Abuladze all show the hardships in the lives of the donkeys. As Juliana Fausto says: “The theme of donkeys’ abuse — their transformation into sausage, death by exhaustion, being beaten to death, and other sorts of cruelty — features in a number of films in which they are prominent characters or protagonists.” There is however one exception in the movies about donkeys, says Fausto:
Anselmo Duarte’s The Given Word (O pagador de promessas, 1962), in which the friendship between the human Zé-do-Burro and the donkey Nicolau — who never appears on screen — is capable of blurring the sacred boundaries between animal and human, Christianity and Candomblé. A man choosing to martyr himself for an animal instead of sacrificing it to God is the ultimate transgression. It is no wonder that, in the end, the police get involved and Zé can only fulfill his promise when he changes places with Nicolau, when, like a donkey, his soul is torn from his body.
The documentary Sanctuary (2017), directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, shows a network of donkey sanctuaries in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and the United States that deals with donkeys and care for their lives. In these sanctuaries, says Fausto:
we come to learn, there are donkeys who are beaten, who are left to die due to being unable to work, or who arrive after have being stabbed over one hundred times in a children’s game. There are donkeys with all sorts of known and unknown scars hidden under their coats, but attempted human affection makes their memories of the wound, marked in their flesh, return, and the animal withdraws. In Ceará, Brazil, the local DMV collects them in the thousands, in the worst conditions. A few sanctuaries take them, but money, along with social interest and sway, is scarce — after all, the donkey is considered a second-rate animal… Brazil continues to engage in (largely illegal) donkey slaughter and, between 2002 and 2019, has exported these animals to countries such as Italy, Portugal, and China. However, restrictions imposed by the European Union have granted China the top spot, as there is a high demand for ejiao, a type of gelatin extracted from donkey hides and is believed to possess medicinal properties. Between 2015 and 2019, approximately 100,000 animals were slaughtered, endangering the Brazilian donkey population, estimated at 400,000.
There is a whole industry of torture of donkeys. Their lives are correlated to the lives of the lowest human beings in the chain of worthlessness. Very few donkeys can enjoy a full life of kindness, of carrot cakes, of play, of joyful heehaws. Christianity did have the chance to change this situation. Donkeys were prominent in the life of Jesus. It was a donkey who carried Mary pregnant with Jesus, and helped them and Joseph run away from Herod. This Gospel story is so much spiritualized that we lose the notion that it was actually a donkey who kept Jesus and Jesus’ family alive! Without that donkey, there would have not been a Jesus. The savior Jesus was literally saved by a donkey. Perhaps Jesus knew that story and had fondness of donkeys. So much so that he asks for a donkey to enter Jerusalem. Jesus’ life story was deeply connected with donkeys.
But in the spiritual language used by Christians, donkeys continue to carry the same lower worthiness of life. It is not uncommon to hear Christians say: “If God can even use a donkey, God can use me. Or if Jesus needed a donkey, God might need me too.” In every way, the donkey is always a lesser being, never worthy of good treatment, shelter, care or even consideration.
Christian theology always worked with the concept of Imago Dei, in which every human being is the very image of God. That is not a small thing in a fascist world where only the 1% of the richest population is worthy of the Imago Dei. But we must go beyond the human. Every animal, every bird, every insect carry the Imago Dei. And EVERY donkey is the very image of God and no less. Every donkey carries Christ in their backs. I am sure heaven will have all of the donkeys who lived on earth. If there is a heaven, it will be the donkey who saved Jesus from Herod and carried Jesus into Jerusalem who will be at the right and at the left side of Jesus welcoming us all, humans and non-humans, with their always “oceanic eyes,” in the Kin-dom of God.
Endnote:
Juliana Fausto, “A Place for EO. Notes on the film EO, by Jerzy Skolimowski,” Revista Rosa Número 2, Volume 7, São Paulo, Brasil, 22/06/2023, https://revistarosa.com, ISSN 2764-1333. https://revistarosa.com/7/a-place-for-eo