The wretched locust, on the other hand, pillages – destroying the livelihood of humans and animals as it goes. These creatures do what they do by instinct. They don’t make choices. Choices are what we humans make, both in our use of the capitalist system and in everything else. We can choose to create, or to pillage.
Many advertisements last week-end sported the word Halloween. No doubt in some subliminal way, their designers hope the word will make us celebrate and shop. The word comes from All Hallows, an antique name for All Saints. It is a moment in the year (November 1) when we celebrate the bees – the people who create. Jesus began his ministry, according to Matthew, by climbing a hill and tell the crowds that they were blessed if they were ‘poor in spirit … gentle …compassionate …pure in heart … peacemakers … and if they suffered and longed for justice and were persecuted in the cause of right.’
Such people, and there are many of them among us, are the ‘salt of the earth.’ They make a difference. They create a new world. They ease the suffering of others and begin to recreate relationships where they have been severed. Their giving of themselves ‘without counting the cost’ eventually brings healing and enemies lay down their weapons. This is what we celebrate at All Hallows, All Saints. These are the ones ‘who have made it.’ They are now with God, pursuing the same aims with far greater power and influence. We say they are at rest but it is a fairly busy rest! John says, ‘what we are to be in the future has not yet be revealed (but) we will be like him.’ (1 John 3:1-3) To be ‘like God’ is to be powerful.
And what of the locusts among us? Well, we can’t do much about them. They will always be there, sowing distrust and division, grasping and absorbed in their own small selfish world. They will have success for a time but they are building on sand. Nothing they do will last. They will harass and disappoint the bees time and again. But in the end only the work of the bees will last.
Post published in: Opinions