Jesus said to his Apostles:
Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
Matthew 10:16
When I was young I compared this verse to something my dad used to say: (words not his own, but one of his favorite dad-isms) "Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee" . We were almost always playing sports, and he would use that one with me while we played tennis. He was one of the most competitive persons I have ever met, but he had an ability to laugh at himself that I admired. I'd tell him: "You sure don't look like a butterfly", and we'd laugh and laugh, right before he aced me in the next tennis serve. And yes, I had plenty of winning shots on him too.
A butterfly and a bee, sheep among wolves, serpents and simple doves are images we see as contradictory. In the society we live in, there are lots of contradictions and many ways that as Christians we can get distracted and become unaware of or even apathetic to the needs of those around us, but that is contrary to our call as Christians. We are to be in the world, and not tied to it. We can ask God today for the grace to be able to find time to sit in His presence and soak in the rays of His Love so we can be the butterfly, the bee, the sheep or however we describe the call He has for us.
