The Parable of the Red-Tailed Desert Hawk and the Bull Snake of Temptation in St. Franciscus: 16: 12-28 And yea, I say unto thee a young red-tailed hawk of less than sound judgment felt the pangs of hunger, but seeing a field mouse passed it by and said, I can sup with greater reward on a larger prey thus the field mouse was spared, and lo the hawk came upon a bull snake meandering in the open road, but who had paused to rest, wound in a deceptive coil. And yea, the hawk, fueled by his greed sought to make the bull snake into his prey…but in his inexperience misgauged its size and strength and swooped down to grasp his prey, but the bull snake had other plans and when the hawk did grasp it, the snake unleashed his powerful coils and in his turn did grasp his adversary about the neck and wing, paralyzing his movements and did begin to asphyxiate his feathered foe. Thus the temptation of greed grasps its unsuspecting victims by deceiving us with the promise of reward, but in fact grasps us in its clutches and denies us the gift of life. But yea, a passing fisherman in his mercy, coming from the river that ran through the desert, saw the struggles of the hawk against his foe, and did take pity on him and prevailed upon the snake to relinquish the hawk it would kill in that the snake could not consume his prey, and would profit nothing by its death. And so the man did move the snake to release his grasp, and the hawk, wiser, lived another day to understand that what from afar may seem a temptation, upon more careful examination may prove to be merely the daemon of death in disguise. Blessed be the reading of these holy words….
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:11:32 +0000
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