Our human nature is to be one with Christ – The B.C. Catholic

I went outside to discover that my beautiful bees were swarming. I heard the loud buzz of rebellion, and saw the sky turn black. My brain buzzed in return as I stared, unsure of what to do first. My friend, and beekeeper extraordinaire, Martin, had once told me to bang pots and pans if they swarmed. For some reason, the bees will stop their flight and settle in the nearest tree instead of disappearing into the distance.

So I grabbed the pots, and Isaac and Thomas joined me, clinking and clanking, and what do you know? The bees flew over our fence and settled on a little tree just on the other side. Unfortunately, the other side of the fence had construction workers toiling away. I ran around the block and in a gasp told them, Be not afraid! They are very gentle when theyre swarming!

They stood in a row, stepping backwards, mouths and eyes wide, unconvinced. So, I suited up, and with the help of my kids, scooped those bees out of the tree and into a box. I cannot describe the feeling of holding bowlfuls of bees, while tens of thousands fly about your head and climb up your arms. It was like a vibrating dish of weightless water that turned into marbles as they poured out of my hands and into the waiting box.

People have asked me why bees swarm. Sometimes they swarm if there is something wrong in the hive: mites, hive beetles, or chemicals. Usually they swarm because they have become so crowded that the workers can no longer smell the queens pheromones, so she lays some new queen eggs, and when they are ready to hatch, she takes half of the hive and says farewell. Off they go to look for a new kingdom to rule. And sometimes, despite all measures taken, bees swarm simply because it is in their nature to do so.

Once upon a time, beekeepers took pride in the swarms of their bees. It meant healthy queens, and new hives of honey. Nowadays, there can be a certain sense of shame in having your hive swarm. It means you werent paying enough attention. You didnt take the right steps to prevent it. And as much as people tote Save the Bees bumper stickers, swarms cause a certain, understandable terror in our over-sterilized society. But we are fooling ourselves if we think we can tame the spirit of the bee. You cannot feel too much shame when the bees are just acting according to their make-up. Its not like they obey commands for biscuits.

Nature cannot be tamed, at least not as much as we believe it can. There is no utopia, no perfect communion with the beasts of the earth. Remember the people who lived with their beloved pet lions? Rest in peace. Ahem.

I once watched an amazing documentary on a real-life farm that had promised to only work with nature as they overcame problems. After seven years of struggles, they amazingly found many ways to farm without the use of predator traps or pesticides. It was brilliant! And when they nearly reached their utopia, a forest fire burned them down. Nature cannot be tamed. It is fierce and beautiful, and a sign of God, but its instinct is survival at all costs. That is why the Morning Glory survives, while the strawberries struggle; Morning Glory chokes them out.

Human nature, while pulled to the same survival, is called to something more, something above. God calls man into the seventh day with him, to rest and become like him. But we are tempted back into day six of creation, the day of the beasts, where impulses, instincts, and strength reign. Alas, the shame for us is real when we simply act according to our broken and beastly human nature, instead of reaching for our made in Gods image human nature.

Caryll Houselander writes in The Reed of God, not one of us, by Himself, could imitate Christ: we are a handful of dust held together by seventy-five percent of liquid, with souls that were stained at birth, and which are weighted all through our lives with a heavy downward lurch towards sin.

Imitating Christ is not the meaning of Christianity, she writes. What we are asked to do is to be made onewith Christ, to allow Him to abide in us, to make His home in us and through that oneness, to become Christs. And when we are one with him, we will become like him. That is the nature, Gods image, that we were created for.

When I watch with such great wonder the magnificence of the beehive, I am still filled with awe. But I am filled with something else: a great sense of awe that the God who made them, also made me, and invites me to join and share in his love, to be one with him. That is the beauty of humanity, and something worth banging pots for.

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Our human nature is to be one with Christ - The B.C. Catholic