“So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
Dear Parents and Friends of St. Michael’s School,
The glorious, warm weather this weekend invited us to be outdoors, and perhaps you saw, as I did, swarms of butterflies – specifically painted lady butterflies – heading north. Because of the abundance of rain this winter and spring, scientists say this year there are millions of these orange and black winged beauties heading to the Pacific Northwest from the deserts of Mexico and Southern California, and this weekend they were out in full force. They fly with purpose and at full speed (up to 25 mph), and the sheer numbers are truly a sight to behold.
In grade school, students study the life cycle of the butterfly. The children learn that adult butterflies lay eggs; from the egg a caterpillar is hatched (larval stage); the caterpillar goes into the pupal stage and forms a chrysalis; while in the chrysalis, a metamorphosis occurs and eventually a new butterfly slowly emerges, unfolding its soft new wings, and resting a bit before it takes flight. The butterfly only lives for about two weeks, so the painted lady butterflies migrating north this past weekend certainly had a sense of urgency – they must get to their destination quickly before time runs out.
We can compare our own spiritual journey to the journey of a butterfly. As we learn more about our faith and become closer to Christ, we, too, go through a bit of a metamorphosis. Just as the butterfly has to struggle to break out of its cocoon, we have to experience struggle as well if we are going to follow Christ. During Lent, we are called to change our hearts: to push out anger, resentment, jealousy, pride and allow Christ’s love to find rest in their place. We think we have plenty of time to become better, kinder disciples. Unfortunately, we typically do not share the same sense of urgency as the butterfly.
If we are fortunate, we will experience this magnificent migration for a few more days, and if you happen to catch a glimpse of a painted lady or two heading north, try to recollect that our faith journey, too, should be with great purpose and at full speed.
