Facing the Monster

Facing the Monster

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Hi folks! It\’s me Dabs! And this is my first post on Catholic Stand. Hope to post here regularly and get to know all of my fellow Catholics here! To start off my column, I\’ll be posting a story that I have written when I was in High School. This story serves as a reflection of my personal journey in finding the love of Christ in my darkest of times.

It\’s dark and sticky while the air is so moist. I can feel critters crawling between my legs.

I feel so wet, so alone. I turned back to see if someone was there to back me up. Hoping that someone is  there  assuring me that I have someone with me in this battle…there was no one.

Thoughts are racing within my head. Running round and round like cat and mouse, dog and cat, whip and dog, cheese and butter.

What I am doing, I am wasting my time. I am standing in this sticky situation…facing a monster, towering like an immovable mountain. His big and red eye looking down at me. He looks like he is ready to devour me at any second now. I feel the stench of his breath. I don\’t wanna smell his breath, but I am stuck and I have no choice but to smell the horrible odor.

His razor sharp teeth has these weird critters with dozens of eyes and multiple hands attached to their bodies. I feel so oozy just by looking and thinking about them and yet I am here all alone facing this giant…facing this thing…facing this…monster.

Why was I so stupid to get myself into this situation? Why was I so eager to follow the sweet, and alluring scent that this monster seduced me with? Why was I so blind to follow its beautiful back, drooling like a dog, without seeing its disgusting face? Why was I so lazy and stubborn to listen to the people around me warning me about this monster why? Why did I fell for its beautiful, promising and lying words of happiness…

Just then, a bright light shone from behind me. I tried to look but I was blinded by the light by the radiant light that gives a positive energy. I was not able to see through the light and yet I can see a man…yes a man…A shining man, but a human being none the less. As I tried to look closer, this man was walking, he was walking towards me , he looks wounded, I see a lot of blood dripping from his sides and his hands. It looks like he is really suffering very harshly, but still he keeps on walking towards me.

I saw the monster, it was now beginning to act violent, like it was very afraid of this man and at the same time angry at him. The monster\’s eyes are now beginning to glow darker, a darker shade of red, then he ROARED!!! Yes he roared like a lion, an elephant and all the scary things you could think off. Its roar sounds like a thousand of souls. Suffering souls, screaming in despair, screams that makes you feel, sad, scared, hopeless and dead at the same time…

By this time I was trembling. I could not face this monster anymore and yet I am here stuck between this wounded man who seems to weak to fight the monster, and this huge monster, looking at me and at the man like he was going to eat me alive that was then…

The man rushed towards me and hugged me and I felt…Love…the monster started screaming and attacking in rage he started biting the man, tearing his wounds and slashing his back and yet the man stood firm on his ground hugging me protecting me from the monster. He was crying, but at the same time smiling…

I cried, tears dropped from my eyes like rainfall on a sunny day. I felt all the energy drained out of me and yet I still feel strong and loved, all because of this man was hugging me despite all the odds. The monster is now growing weaker every blow, it seems that the blood of the man is reacting violently against the monster, it seems like the blood of this man is like acid, burning the monster.

The monster stopped attacking now and started crying and wimping. It started talking! And told the man every single bad thing that i have done, he was ACCUSING ME! Who was this man!? what kind of monster is this?  I felt embarrassed and scared at the same time. I felt dirty because all of the monster\’s words are true, but still this man continues to hug me…he continues to hug me…

By this time the monster stopped, it sounded like he was defeated, wounded and weak. Now he  turned his back and started walking towards the dark edges of the path, after 3 minutes his smell was gone, the battlefield was a mess, full of the monster\’s dirt and the man\’s blood.

But still this man continues to hug me….he doesn\’t want to let go of me…

The I asked him…why did you do all of those things for me???
Then he answered…
Because I forgive you…
I love you

—-

A God that bleeds. That is the God that we have and we celebrate every Sunday. We have a God who willingly became Man and bled on the cross for us. And this is the very same God who comes to us every week in the most Holy Eucharist full in body and blood to purify us and heal us. He continues to come to us every single day in prayer and in sleep to assure and embrace us that it is through his blood that we are sanctified and purified.

Sure, we have our own monsters, our own temptations, challenges and struggles. And at most times we may feel alone and helpless at the face of this being. We may feel trapped to escape the monster and unworthy to come closer to Christ. But because of our God who bleeds, his love surpasses all of these things. Through the sacrament of confession, we can come back to him and receive his sanctifying grace. And this grace is strengthened and manifested through our reception of his body and blood through the Eucharist. The monsters that accuses us, hurts us and deceives us is no match compared to the Man of Light that Bleeds. And his blood conquers the monster and all his stenches.

It is truly amazing that we have an forgiving, merciful and loving God. Let\’s always remember to visit him in Adoration and receive his body and his blood for us to be made complete.

Brothers and Sisters as I end this post let me share to you a quote by the Blessed Pope John Paul II on Divine Mercy.

\”Like St Faustina, we wish to proclaim that apart from the mercy of God there is no other source of hope for mankind. We desire to repeat with faith: Jesus, I trust in You!…With the eyes of our soul, we long to look into the eyes of the merciful Jesus in order to find, deep within His gaze, the reflection of His inner life, as well as the light of grace which we have already received so often, and which God holds out to us anew each day and on the last day…. In the mercy of God, the world will find peace and mankind will find happiness!\”

 

Jesus, I trust in You…

AMEN

—–

©David Quiambao. All Rights Reserved.

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4 thoughts on “Facing the Monster”

  1. Indeed Emmanuel, that is one of the greatest blessings that we have in the Catholic Church, the ability to receive Christ through the Eucharist as much as everyday. It’s a wonderful thing indeed!

  2. A truly inspirational post, Dabs Q. I must also say that the monster in your story is not an imaginative thing – I have seen something very similar to it in real life.You have given me the courage, so I am planning to share how I came to meet the monster in one of my upcoming posts for Catholic Stand. One more thing, one of the true blessings of being a Catholic is that we don’t need to wait till Sundays to experience the Holy Eucharist, it is celebrated everyday in many Churches all over the world.

  3. Indeed Emmanuel, that is one of the greatest blessings that we have in the Catholic Church, the ability to receive Christ through the Eucharist as much as everyday. It’s a wonderful thing indeed!

  4. A truly inspirational post, Dabs Q. I must also say that the monster in your story is not an imaginative thing – I have seen something very similar to it in real life.You have given me the courage, so I am planning to share how I came to meet the monster in one of my upcoming posts for Catholic Stand. One more thing, one of the true blessings of being a Catholic is that we don’t need to wait till Sundays to experience the Holy Eucharist, it is celebrated everyday in many Churches all over the world.

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