Be the Bee
Christ is risen!
I love this story, maybe because I can relate to it.
“Some people tell me that they are scandalized because they see many things wrong in the Church. I tell them that if you ask a fly, 'Are there any flowers in this area?' it will say, 'I don’t know about flowers, but over there in that heap of rubbish you can find all the filth you want.' And it will go on to list all the unclean things it has been to.
Now, if you ask a honeybee, 'Have you seen any unclean things in this area?' it will reply, 'Unclean things? No, I have not seen any; the place here is full of the most fragrant flowers.' And it will go on to name all the flowers of the garden or the meadow.
You see, the fly only knows where the unclean things are, while the honeybee knows where the beautiful iris or hyacinth is.
As I have come to understand, some people resemble the honeybee and some resemble the fly. Those who resemble the fly seek to find evil in every circumstance and are preoccupied with it; they see no good anywhere. But those who resemble the honeybee only see the good in everything they see. The stupid person thinks stupidly and takes everything in the wrong way, whereas the person who has good thoughts, no matter what he sees, no matter what you tell him, maintains positive and good thoughts.”
- St. Paisios of Mount Athos, The Spiritual Counsels: The Struggles
God knows, it is hard to have good thoughts sometimes. It is especially easy these days to be see the bad when the news we’re fed is pretty dark. It is common to see things in a negative light. For some of us it has become a habit to see the glass half full than the glass half empty.
“When we neglect our prayer; that is our communication with God, the devil finds the chance to confuse us with negative thoughts. Thus, we end up not knowing what we want, do, or say.” -St Paisios, On Prayer.
The Saint is telling us that through sustained, persistent prayer we who might be flies can become bees. We can, with God’s help, change from seeing the darkness in life to seeing the brightness of life. This is the whole point of the Resurrection, the Lord Jesus conquered death, he made the night as bright as day, he vanquished sin. But we must take the Resurrection and actually live it. Yes, the Lord loves us beyond all telling, even when we sin and wander away from him. But if we don’t love him what good is his love? We cannot know divine love if we don’t open ourselves to it. It all begins with persistent, sustained prayer. Let us pray more and complain less.
Fondly,
Fr. Phil
