Let me share with you the Parable of the Cats and the Batting Cage. For many years, we had a batting cage with netting on the east side of our home. Every few years, a stray cat would get caught in the netting of the cage. The cat would contend against the netting and fight and fight and fight. The contention with the net was harmful to the cat. In time, as the cat would keep up its fight, the netting would wrap tighter and tighter around the cat’s body and its airway. A few times, I went to the side yard and, not knowing of a cat’s struggle, I would find a dead cat tangled in the netting. This was always a self-inflicted tragedy, committed by a cat contending with a deadly net.

A few years ago, it happened again. My wife came in to the office on a Monday and said, “We have a dead cat in the batting cage.” I thought “Oh, no, not again!” It was a busy day at work and even busier afternoon and evening. I did not even make it out to the cage until Tuesday. I went out with gloves and a bag so I could dispose of the dead cat. When I went around the corner and approached the cage, I found a cat that was still alive. The cat had contended against the netting, but, at some point in its fight, it had quit contending, so it had been spared. This cat wisely had realized the more it fought the netting, the more it kicked against the pricks, the more damage the netting did. The cat was trapped, but alive, and, I am certain, hoping
for an escape from the battle of contention that it had been in. 

The cat had obviously contended against its captor, but it had not been able to free itself. I became the cat’s only chance at survival. Despite being the one desiring to rescue the cat, it hissed and clawed and contended against me. I partially freed the cat from its dilemma and provided some sustenance in a bowl of milk. The cat was still resistant, but it was gradually gaining some trust in me, its rescuer.

In time, the cat again gave up contending. It literally relaxed, trusted and surrendered to me. It allowed me to go in and touch it, hold it, and remove much of the twisted netting from its harnessed body. I carefully cut, trimmed and removed the netting. When I was finished, the cat literally had been freed from a deadly bondage, brought on through fighting, struggling, and battling the net—that is, through contending. When the fight with the net ended, the cat was allowed to be freed. 

We are in the same dilemma as the cat. We are oftentimes trapped by our feelings of anger, resentment, jealousy and envy. When we allow a rescuer in the Savior to come and carefully free us from these feelings, we are literally freed. When we use the power of the atonement to forgive and forget, we come alive again in a more powerful way. We again feel the freedom that comes from a “mighty change in your [our] hearts” (Alma 5:14) through adherence to life-changing and life-returning principles of Christ. We return to love, harmony and peace.