The Wonder of Bees


Many years ago, I got an idea to make a patchwork quilt – old style – cutting out pieces of cloth and sewing them together. I put great effort into my preparations, measuring everything carefully and cutting them to equal size. Or so I thought! When I began putting the quilt together, I realised I had to do some gentle stretching and pulling to make the pieces fit into each other! And so, I am always amazed and filled with wonder at the precision of a honeycomb, made by tiny bees with no measuring tools or rulers. Each six-sided cell has exactly the same dimensions as those around it, so that all fits together so neatly and perfectly!

For some time, we have had resident honeybees in the roof of our chapel here in Kilmacud. Last week we decided the time had come to have them re-housed by a professional beekeeper in order that the colony would not grow too large. It was a painstaking and difficult job, but the colony was successfully removed and is now settled for the winter in a proper apiary. The beekeeper told us that he estimates there were 70,000 bees in our large chapel-roof community! We marvelled at a piece of the comb he left with us, explaining how the bees when building their home leave exactly 8mm to move around between each piece of comb, and this was evident in our roof, even without man-made frames for them to build on! Such architectural skill from tiny creatures is awesome and inspiring; and they have no worries about pyrite or mica or aerated concrete because they can make all their own building materials from their own bodies!

In the days following the bee removal, before the roof was repaired, many foraging bees and wasps came inside our chapel, attracted by the smell of honey. They found themselves trapped inside and buzzed against the windows for hours before becoming exhausted. Sometimes the noise of buzzing was so loud it felt like we were living inside a beehive, and I could hear the noise in my head everywhere in the house and even in bed at night! I wondered what I could learn from these poor disorientated bees that could benefit my distracted prayer in the chapel these days? Then it came to me… there are many, many people in our world today who are lost and trapped and trying to find an external or interior freedom. Each poor bee buzzing on the window could represent one of these suffering people. As the buzzing noise was so clear to me, I prayed that it would also be clearly heard by God and that He would bring relief and peace to those in our world who need it most.

There is so much we can learn from bees, and how they organise their colony and communicate with each other. They each have assigned roles and each one is dedicated to the survival and safety of the whole community. They provide us with delicious honey and high-quality wax. Bees are so special that they are specifically mentioned at the most solemn moment of the greatest Church Liturgy of the year, i.e., the singing of the “Exsultet” after the blessing of the new Easter Candle. Yes, even the humble bees are acknowledged for their work in providing the wax for this candle, as we sing:
“O holy Father, accept this candle, a solemn offering, the work of bees and of your servants’ hands…”

We thank and praise God for all we have learned and can ponder about bees during this “Season of Creation”.


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