Journey to a Life with God.

A student found a cocoon one day and brought it to his homeroom which was in the biology lab. The teacher put it into an unused aquarium with a lamp to keep the cocoon warm. About a week went by when a small opening began to appear on the underside of the cocoon. The students watched as it began to shake. Suddenly, tiny antennae emerged, followed by the head and tiny front feet. The students would run back to the lab in between classes to check on the progress of the cocoon. By lunchtime it had to struggle to free its listless wings, the colors revealing that it was a monarch butterfly. It wiggled, shook, and struggled, but now it seemed to be stuck. Try as it might, the butterfly couldn’t seem to force its body through the small opening in the cocoon.

 

Finally, one student decided to help the butterfly out of its difficulty. He took scissors from the table, snipped off the cocoon’s restrictive covering, and out plopped an insect-like thing. The top half looked like a butterfly with droopy wings, the bottom half, which was just out of the cocoon, was large and swollen. The butter-pillar or cater-fly never flew with its stunted wings. It just crawled around the bottom of the aquarium, dragging its wings and swollen body. Within a short time it died.

 

The next day the biology teacher explained that the butterfly’s struggle to get through the tiny opening was necessary in order to force the fluids from the swollen body into the wings so that they would be strong enough to fly. Without the struggle the wings never developed and the butterfly could not fly.

 

I refer to this story because the trip undertaken by the Magi from the East took some doing. They had to study the stars to figure out where they should go. They had to anticipate how long it would take and pack supplies accordingly. They had to be ready for a difficult journey across a forbidding desert. They had to be humble enough to ask for directions when they were lost. They had to discern what was safe and what wasn’t. And they needed grit and determination when the journey became difficult.

 

In the journey of the Magi, I see a parallel to the struggle of the Monarch butterfly to become fully developed. And I see a parallel to every life, including our own. And so, we have a lot of food for thought.

 

·      How well do we prepare for the future, especially for rainy days and times of uncertainty?

·      Do we plan ahead, so that we will have enough resources for the days ahead?

·      How determined are we? Do we try to solve problems, work through difficulties, and create a better outcome for ourselves? Or do we give up when the going gets tough?

·      In the midst of all the preparations, all we need to do to be ready, to have security, to have happiness and a bright future, do we include God in our search, or for all intents and purposes, do we ignore the role of God in our life?

·      If we see that a major adjustment is needed, and a course correction is required, are we willing to follow a detour, intent on getting to our goal, or do we just turn around and go home?

 

Ultimately, the struggle pays off for the fully developed Monarch butterfly. And the journey paid off for the Magi from the East. They found the new-born King and it reoriented their lives; it changed everything (they went back by another route).

 

In this New Year are we going to take our relationship with God seriously—searching more, listening more, praying more, coming to Church more? Do we have what it takes to struggle to become more fully human, more alive, more like what God had in mind when he called us into being? Or do we settle for a half-life, like the half-butterfly, or like those who never considered the journey to a life with God all that important?

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By Charlene Currie • November 28, 2025
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Homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time November 16, 2025

By Charlene Currie • November 28, 2025
Too Stubborn to Quit. Homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time November 16, 2025 The California coast was blanketed in fog July 4, 1952. Twenty-one miles to the west, on Catalina Island, Florence Chadwick, a 34-year-old-long-distance-swimmer, waded in to the water and began swimming toward the California coast. She had already conquered the English Channel, swimming in both directions. Now she was determined to be the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. As the hours ticked off, Chadwick fought bone-chilling cold, dense fog, and sharks. Several times, sharks had to be driven off by rifles. Fatigue never set in, but the icy water numbed her to the point of exhaustion. Straining to make out the shore through her swimmer’s goggles, she could see only a dense fog. She knew she could not go any farther. Although not a quitter, Chadwick shouted to her trainer and her mother in the boat and asked to be taken out of the water. They urged her not to give up, but when she looked toward the California coast, all she could see was thick fog. So after fifteen hours and fifty-five minutes of fighting the elements, she was hauled from the channel into the boat. Frozen to the bone and her spirit defeated, Chadwick was devastated when she discovered she was only a half-mile from the coast! She felt the shock of failure…. Two months later, Chadwick swam that same channel, and again fog clouded her vision, but this time she swam with her faith intact—that somewhere behind that fog was land. This time she succeeded. Not only was she the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, but she beat the men’s record by two hours. A line from this story that struck me was: “this time she swam with her faith intact.” Florence Chadwick was able to persevere to her goal because she believed she could do it. In today’s gospel passage, Jesus speaks about the challenges and threats that will be faced by the first disciples when they go out into the world and start proclaiming the message. He doesn’t mince words or paint a rosy picture. Tough times of suffering will come. But then he adds, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” In reflecting on this teaching, I was reminded of another Bible story. The disciples are in a boat crossing a lake. Jesus had stayed behind to spend some time in prayer. Then, late at night, he comes toward them, walking on the water. The disciples are frightened, thinking they’re seeing a ghost. Jesus tries to reassure them, when Simon Peter yells, “Lord, if it is really you, command that I walk on the water toward you.” Jesus invites him to do so, and Peter steps out of the boat and actually walks on the water toward Jesus. But then, he looks down and notices the threatening situation he is in. And he begins to sink. Jesus has to fish him out of the water and get him back into the boat (Cf. Matthew 14:22-33). What makes the difference? As long as Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus, he can do the seemingly impossible. When he focuses on the threat, he sinks. We find something similar in the writings of St. Paul. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he writes, “You know that while all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, the award goes to one man. In that case, run so as to win! Athletes deny themselves all sorts of things. They do this to win a crown of leaves that withers, but we a crown that is imperishable. I do not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line…” (1 Cor 9:24-26). So, when we have to face difficulties, when we live in hard times, when we feel left out or let down, how are we supposed to keep going? Florence Chadwick failed when she couldn’t see the finish line. When she found faith withing herself again, she was able to go back and reach her goal. Peter was even able to walk on water, but only as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. And Paul writes that he has been able to keep going, even while facing all sorts of hardships, because he has never lost sight of the goal. When facing challenges, a stubborn faith is required; perseverance is needed. It’s very easy to give up, to call it quits, to feel that there’s no way to face all the problems that pile up. We don’t have to face life’s challenges alone. Jesus is with us. And he asks us to be there for each other. He asks us to persevere, to have faith, to be too stubborn to quit.