Remembering the sweetness of bees as summer changes to autumn

As we enjoy early fall and harvest time, one of the harvest foods we may not first think about is honey. But September is the last month when bees are usually out gathering nectar for honey-making before the frost kills off the late-blooming flowers.

On Oct. 2, our Jewish brothers and sisters will celebrate the first night of Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year.

On that night, one of the traditional foods to be eaten and shared are apples dipped in honey. Jews believe that eating this treat is a way to ask God to look on them with sweetness in the upcoming year.

God’s benevolence

• Jewish tradition has long looked at honey as a sign of God’s benevolence.
• The Promised Land to which Moses brought the Hebrews was called the “land of milk and honey.”
• In the Book of Exodus, we see manna from heaven described as tasting like bread made with honey (Ex 16:31).
• In Jesus’ day, honey was a common food for the poor, because wild bees were abundant in this region of Palestine and honey could be gathered from them. John the Baptist ate this “wild honey.” (This is why he is a patron of beekeepers.)
• In a verse that comes in some of the translations of Luke’s Gospel, the risen Lord ate broiled fish and honeycomb when he appeared to his apostles in the locked Upper Room. (Lk 24:42). (You can see this verse in the King James Version of the Bible. Catholic Bible translation notes that there is a verse missing in this spot.)

The Jewish word for honey — dvash — originally referred to any sweet syrup. Generally, dvash was made from grapes, dates or figs. Only later, shortly of the time of Jesus did, dvash come to most often mean bees’ honey.

From the word dvash, we get the name “Deborah,” which means “honey bee.” There is a St. Deborah, who is a patron of beekeepers.

She lived in Ireland in the fifth or sixth century. Her Irish name was Gobnait, which was later Anglicized to Deborah. St. Gobnait is said to have driven off cattle thieves from a warring clan by losing the bees in her hives on them. Her feast day is Feb. 11.

While bees are sometimes connected with warriors (see Deut. 1:44), in Christian history, they were more often praised for their industrious nature.

Candles in church’s life

Besides honey for food, bees provide wax for candles. Until recently in the liturgical life of the church, candles used on the altar were required to be made of at least 51 percent beeswax. And the Paschal Candle of Easter is still supposed to contain beeswax, because it is a symbol of the pure body of Christ. Right after this Paschal Candle is lit at the Easter Vigil, the church also sings the Exsultet, part of which proclaims: “Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided but undimmed, a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God. … Christ is our light! Thanks be to God!”

Another part of the Exsultet (a part which is no longer used at the Easter Vigil) praises bees:

“On this, your night of grace, O holy Father, accept this candle, a solemn offering … for it is fed by melting wax, drawn out by mother bees to build a torch so precious.” (This is an acknowledgement that only female bees make honey.)

Bees at St. Peter’s

If you visit St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and look at the high altar with massive pillars supporting its baldacchino, you will also see bees. They adorn each of its four twisting pillars. While it might be poetic to think of these bees as symbolizing the work of the church on earth, they actually are part of the family crest of the Barberinis. Pope Urban VIII was born Maffeo Barberini and elected pope in 1623. He commissioned the artist Gian Bernini to design the 98-foot baldacchino. The design included the bees of the Barberini crest.

A later pope, Pius XII, in 1948, delivered a famous sermon on bees. He called bees “models of social life and activity, in which each class has its duty to perform and performs it exactly — one is almost tempted to say conscientiously — without envy, without rivalry, in the order and position assigned to each, with care and love. Even the most inexperienced observer of bee culture admires the delicacy and perfection of this work.”

Pope’s honey farm

Later this month, Pope Francis will receive a special jar of honey. It comes directly from the papal farm in the town of Castel Gandolfo. On this 50-acre farm, created in the 1930s by Pope Pius XI, one can find cows, chickens, olive groves, a vegetable garden, an orchard — and beehives. Whatever the farm produces, from vegetables to cheese to honey, is used by the papal household or sold to Vatican employees and retirees at the Vatican discount supermarket.

The director of agricultural operations at the farm is Vincenzo Scaccioni.

“Bees are a symbol of industriousness, unity and a community that gives fruit,” Scaccioni recently told Catholic News Service. “It is an example that the church, deep down, is a hive, though not one that stings, but (that) gives honey.”

It may not be the New Year for Christians, but when we enjoy the new fall harvest, we can remember the sweet care God bestows on us.

Sources: Catholic News Service; jewishencyclopedia.com; northantsbees.org.uk; saintspreserved.com; catholicculture.org; NCRonline.org; fisheaters.com; haaretz.com; newsweek.com.

See a short video about the honey made at Castel Gandolfo: visit http://bit.ly/2cPE1ar

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