Sunday March 2 Lenten Post..Waiting

I am preparing a Spiritual Life Retreat/Book Study for Thursday using Sue Monk Kidd's book; When the Heart Waits.
Throughout the book she uses the image of caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies. With a wide variety of Biblical illustrations and resources such as Jung, Merton, Eckhart, developmental psychologists, some actual butterfly biology, and her own experiences, she builds on those images of waiting as a necessary part of spiritual transformation.
In that cocoon time we are in the dark, perhaps struggling or helpless, unknowing, vulnerable, (literally the larva becomes almost gelatinous in the transformative process) and nothing can be done to force the process. You have probably heard the stories of the well meaning person who helped the butterfly out of the cocoon, only to have a butterfly wounded and deformed, deprived of the struggle? But we often avoid it or fear it. She cites many biblical images that are symbolic of that cocooning,, Jonah in the “fish” Daniel in the night of the lions den, Sarah in her barrenness , the Egyptian years, or the Exile....waiting images are common; beggars like Lazarus or blind Bartimaeous waiting by the side of the road. I plan to pick up on the Lazarus in the tomb story as an image of this, and the odd statement of Jesus’ delay in coming. Does that simply describe the spiritual condition that you cant rush out of the cocoon time? The spiritual disciplines of Sabbath, contemplative prayer, listening, stillness. entering our suffering...all of it under the umbrella of the waiting heart as requisite in soul formation. Could the ancient desert monastic advice “to enter into your cell and your cell will teach you everything” call us to the cocooning and waiting that births us into the next stage of our growth? To put it simply: it is the cross and the tomb before the resurrection; Good Friday before Easter.

Here is one of her quotes and concerns about our ‘Quickaholic Spirituality” that would have us keep busy, rush past our pains and doubts, and avoid our cocoon stages

"When it comes to religion today, we tend to be long on butterflies and short on cocoons. Somehow we're going to have to relearn that the deep things of God don't come suddenly. It's as if we imagine that all of our spiritual growth potential is dehydrated contents to which we need only add some holy water to make it instantly and easily appear." (p. 26)


By the way, in Greek mythology, the soul /the psyche was personified as a butterfly
and I read somewhere that in Kabbalic mysticism the word for ego actually means “cocoon'. Of course the cocoon/butterfly has its Easter symbolism as well .