Queen-Bee

If I spent less time complaining and more time eating the royal jelly that God provided for me, I would be able to remember the crown on my head – after all – I am the daughter of the King…

Mary Queen of Heaven (Master of the Saint Lucy Legend)

Bees are interesting creatures.  Not only are they anatomically designed NOT to fly, but they are a very interesting organisation as a whole. When a queen bee dies, immediately some of the larva of the hive are fed a different type of food.  This new type of food – “royal jelly” is what allows these few larva (usually four or five) to develop into queen-bees.  Once the larva mature, ONE of the select few is able to dominate and destroy the others and in this way, that bee then becomes the new queen bee of the hive.

I have been thinking about this today because it seems to me that there is nothing terribly remarkable about the larva that are chosen to become a queen bee.  They would be any old larva under different circumstances, but the particular set of circumstances at a particular time are what inform the queen bee’s development, and a larva that could otherwise have been completely unremarkable could be called to a life of great sacrifice.

The queen bee spends its entire lifetime producing offspring for the purpose of populating the hive and keeping it healthy…  And while – at first – this might seem a more convenient job than that of the worker bees or the drones and soldier bees, who are tasked with patrolling the hive and collecting the pollen, the queen bee is the bee who is in service to the entire community.  Saint Francis de Sales compared the queen bee to a charitable human soul…  “The queen bee never settles in her hive without being surrounded by her swarm, and charity never takes possession of the heart without bringing in her train all other virtues, exercising them and bringing them into play as a general his troops. But she does not call them forth suddenly, all at once, nor in all times and places. The good man is like a tree planted by the water-side that will bring forth its fruit in due season, because when a soul is watered with charity, it brings forth good works seasonably and with discretion.” (“An Introduction to the Devout Life”, page 117).

And I have been thinking about this today.  You see, it seems to me that the circumstances that each Christian soul finds itself in are like the circumstances that are present to create a new queen bee.  All things align so that the soul can be in a situation where it can achieve the greatness to which it was created and of which it may never have been aware.  This means the good things, the bad things, and the opportunities and challenges are all factors that contribute to the prosperity of the soul.  “In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other.” (Ecclesiastes 7:14a).

And I have been thinking about this today, as I have been considering queen bees, because it seems to me that if I spent less time complaining and more time eating the royal jelly that God provided for me, I would be able to remember the crown on my head – after all – I am the daughter of the King…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.