”Evolution is written on the wings of a butterfly.” -- Charles Darwin

While traveling recently I saw a film at an Omnimax theater. The film was on the migration of the monarch butterfly. I've never seen or heard the details of this migration explained so clearly. The venue almost literally brought it to life. Starting in Texas in the spring, the first generation of butterflies migrate as far north as the Midwest before laying their eggs along the fast-disappearing borders around farmlands. The second generation flies further north to the Great Lakes region, where again they lay their eggs before dying. A third generation is born just before winter. This is a so-called “super-generation.” The caterpillars increase in size 2,000 times during the two weeks before they pupate into butterflies. Thanks to special cells, these butterflies have far greater strength and stamina than the preceding two generations.

The butterflies will need all the endurance they can muster in order to complete a thousand-mile journey from the Great Lakes to a few select mountaintops in Mexico. Some of them, numbering in the millions, will survive until the following spring when they will mate and then fly back to Texas. And the cycle begins again.

Human beings have not been around as long as the monarch butterfly. We are relative newcomers on the planet. However I thought the metaphor was appropriate during this week as we watch a changing of the guard at the Vatican. We did not invent this journey on our own. Each generation leaves a legacy for the next. Human society is different today than it was a thousand, ten thousand, or a million years ago. Were it not for the passing on of wisdom through the generations we'd probably still be a cave-dwelling species.

In my experience the one thing that distinguishes us from other species is the ability to acknowledge and celebrate life beyond our own limited lifespan. Our ancestors, going back tens of thousands of years, left artifacts showing knowledge and reverence for the mysteries of the world around and beyond them. It is an evolution in the human species that has allowed change of an extraordinary magnitude to manifest itself in a very short space of time.

I think one of the most remarkable photos ever taken is that of the planet Earth through the window of a space capsule. It has become for me and others an icon not only of our progress technologically but also of our place in the universe. Without the preceding millions of years of evolution the human species could never have achieved this extraordinary feat. The photo neither supports nor denies a God hypothesis but it does confirm our vulnerability and relative insignificance in the greater scheme of things. It also confirms our dependency on one another and our need to pass along the wisdom from one generation to the next, just as the monarch butterfly depends on each preceding generation.

In Rome this week an ancient spiritual tradition tries to find its way into the future by building on what has come before. Like in any tradition some can be viewed positively and some negatively. I am not a Roman Catholic but I hope that as an institution they can navigate the rough waters ahead, on behalf of the billion or so members who gain strength and support from it, along with the rest of us who benefit from the positive contributions made for people in this community and throughout the world.

Imagining that we can survive without the wisdom and resources of the past would be like a monarch butterfly trying to find its way from Mexico and back without the legacy of the past to help guide it. As individuals we try our best to navigate through the challenges we face. Some of the choices we make will be good, some not so good. Hopefully we learn and grow from the mistakes we make. I wish the Roman Catholic Church and its membership all the best in this time of change with the election of Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope Francis I. Just as evolution is written on the wings of a butterfly, so tradition seems to be imprinted on the spirit of human beings. Sometimes faith and hope are all we have to sustain us in the face of a very uncertain future. 
