TradCatKnight: Change is Painful....

Change is Painful....

By: Eric Gajewski

Consider the caterpillar who drudges along the ground and cannot yet reach the skies. He believes there is nothing more to life than this. Little does he realize that God has planned for so much more of him. He slowly moves along this side of his transformation preparing for the painful day of having to go inside the cocoon. He does not want to be alone; he does not want the silence; he does not want this dark and yet for this brief period of time it is necessary by God's holy design. We, too, drudge along this side of the cocoon fearing in self love this transformation.

We fear because we are creatures of habit but what God has planned for us and individuals can only be found in Faith. we all could just go on living day to day all the same and fail to want to go inside to become the Saints we were all destined to be in God. Just as no man can become a Saint without the Church and true Catholic Faith no caterpillar can become a butterfly without the cocoon. There is order in this painful change. The pain is sensory but more so it is spiritual because God is trying to root out self love from your soul. Just as the caterpillar finds his new found wings as a butterfly so do we "go within" in prayer in this dense and frightening dark to find our wings of faith and hope and ultimately find ourselves.

Due to original sin we were all born as caterpillars. Through baptism we enter into Life. We go from the Dark into the Light. We were not made to have this horizontal vision in this life but rather to have the all seeing vision of the butterfly who takes to the skies. His wings are beautiful before all. Men stop and pause to reflect upon this beauty even as we Catholics stop and pause to meditate upon the Saints who lives were so beautiful. Their lives to can be seen in light of this transformation.
Yes, we must be strung up like the caterpillar if we truly want to transform. Our prayers seemingly go unanswered but is that the truth? Unanswered prayers in reality are answered because God knows what is best for us. Does the child who wines and cries over not getting a glass of poison get what he wants? No and thank God he didn't. Seek Gods Will not your own for in human nature none of us want to be trapped inside the cocoon all alone and yet this is where we encounter Christ. Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21

Modern man pays attention to his surface and how he appears before all and yet this looks ugly to God (vanity). Women pursue looking "the hottest" and they look like crawling caterpillars before God. The answer to this self love is the Sacred Heart and one will not find it without entering the cocoon. God is going to give mankind a great gift soon in of these material chastisements coming. It is going to provide your cocoon experience. It will drive men inward because they will realize they can truly trust no one else. Much to our surprise Life and Light is found inside this divine dark that the Catholic mystics so often describe. Modern man is unaware of the dark that prevails over his heart and in his soul and so with these chastisements God will show them this directly.

Indeed the change is painful but in pain there is Love and Love has the highest seat therefore it endures all pain. Men will endure painful breakups only to endure "the best" that God has awaiting for them in terms of a spouse. Yet did we not cry and complain all along that God was not with us? This is silliness. God sees all things at all times...yes even you and your life. The choice remains do we choose willingly to go within in this dark, into the silence and solitude or will we resist the necessary pain that accompanies this transformation. God's Light penetrating upon the dark of our cluttered hearts is painful yet if you seek to be truly free you will endure. God's Fire penetrating upon the soul seems like hell at times because you are still full of yourself and need the remedy. What wound ever feels good when the medicine is first placed upon it? do we not scream like madmen first over this pain? But does not the pain subside and afterwards you are grateful for the medicine? So too it is with our souls. Our hearts are far from God's even though we smile all day long and pretend we arre happy. We pretend that happiness is a result of being positive. We pretend we arent truly lonely even though we have 5000 friends on facebook.

This is our choice today.....