Ants

Ants were once men and made their living by tilling the soil.  But, not content with the results of their own work, they were always casting longing eyes upon the crops and fruits of their neighbors, which they stole whenever they got the chance, and added to their own store. 

At last, their covetousness made Jupiter [Zeus] so angry that he changed them into ants.  But though their forms were changed, their nature remained the same. And so, to this day, they go about among the cornfields and gather the fruits of others’ labor and store them up for their own use. 

The moral of this fable from Aesop?  You may punish a thief, but his bent remains.  In other words, we cannot get leopards to change their spots or zebras to change their stripes – or ants to gather their own fruits. 

We all have opinions and biases, especially when it comes to religion and politics.   We likely cannot change the other’s polarized position on these topics (or our own), but at least we should respect and understand those views.  There are reasons for the other and opposite perspective. 

Nevertheless, there are some stances that should not and cannot be tolerated such as the one fomenting the ruinous attack on our Capitol in D.C. with its death and destruction threatening our fragile democracy.  It seemed as if Jupiter turned the guilty ones into ants as they infiltrated that sacred ground with many intending great harm to elected officials with whom they strongly disagreed. 

That insurrection was the antithesis to Jesus’ teaching and how we Christians are supposed to act as the Body of Christ.  We are not ants.  We should not act like them as a mob all of the same color and intent.

Deacon David Pierce