Can we learn from the swallow?

 

By Dr. Rolando M. Ochoa

My wife, Yolanda, and I spent a few days this June in Urbana Illinois USA visiting our daughter Maria and her family. While there I had the opportunity to enjoy watching a pair of Barn Swallows (Golondrinas in Spanish) fly in and out the nest they have built out of mud, leaves, and feathers in a corner of the house’s back porch.

Swallows are migrating birds that fly from Texas and California in the months of April and May to mate, build a nest, lay the eggs, incubating them, feed the chicks, and teaching them how to hunt insects while flying. Around September, running from the winter, all of them fly to Central and South America to repeat the cycle every year many times returning to the same nest’s location.

I started watching them at the end of the process of incubating which normally last from 14 to 16 days. Both male and female, who normally form a monogamous couple, took turns in keeping the eggs warm. The female, who identifies herself as a female, will normally lay from 3 to 8 eggs. This couple had 3 eggs, because I counted them when the chicks were born as I could see their open beaks wide open asking for food.

Both mother and father flew constantly in and out the nest bring food that they have gather. These birds fly extremely fast and are very protective of their young. Some times we would sit in the back porch and they will not go to nest, but fly around us like “demanding” that we move because they had to feed their chicks. Their commitment and devotion to their parental duties was commendable.

It is illegal in the US and many other countries to disturb the nest after the eggs are laid until the nest is vacated.

Watching this marvel of nature made me reflect in the greatness of Our Creator. These birds show me more than instinct. They show me love and strong feelings. These can not happen just by a chance of nature or by evolution. These birds like all others animals show habits and behavior that could only be explain by creation.

Watching the swallows, I drew a parallel to some of the political issues of our time.

Killing a baby in the womb is allowed by law in the US and many other countries and supported by many politicians including Joe Biden. Destroying a swallow’s nest is illegal.

Most animals paired as male and female to form a family unit and procreate. Many politicians support same sex marriage among humans including Joe Biden.

These two examples have contributed greatly to the deterioration of the human family and weaken the dedication and commitment to the family unit. The swallows are not affected. Many women have been abandoned by their husband to fend for themselves. The swallow male, who identifies himself as a male, is there to help and protect and carry his own weight in the family process.

These two examples are considered transgressions or sins by the Catholic church. When a politician, such as Joe Biden, who proclaims himself to be a Catholic, supports, accepts, and defends in public, these transgressions or sins, he makes them his public sins and not his private sins and can be deny communion.

We have a saying in Cuba: “Tanta culpa tiene el que mata la vaca como el que le aguanta la pata.” Which loosely translated means: “Both are at fault. He who kills the cow and he who holds her leg.”

According to the teachings of the Catholic church and the scriptures:

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11, 27).

We are all sinners. If you sin and you are Catholic, in order to receive Holy Communion, you must, first repent of your sins, confess them, be sorry for them, have a strong purpose of not committing them again, and do penance. It is also important to have a strong formed conscience so we are not repeatedly and frequently go to confession with the same sins.

If your sin is private, meaning only you know about it, you have three choices; confess it as describe above, abstain from communion, or you could hide it and go to communion in order to maintain your status in your community or family. If you do that, you will be now guilty of another sin even graver. In this case, because you are the only one that knows of your sin, the Church will not deny communion because there is no ground. It becomes a personal matter. By doing the third choice you proof that your Catholicism is questionable at best.

By the way, I think it is difficult to keep a sin private. As we say about secrets: “A secret between two people, it is not a secret.” It is difficult to sin and keep it totally private. Most of the time there is someone who knows we have sinned. If that person keeps it quiet, it will remain private, but if that person talks about it, you could be dealing with a public sin.

If your sin is public, meaning a lot of people know it and you have declared it in public by your actions, your support to those who practice it, etc., you only have two reasonable choices; confess it as describe above or abstain from communion. If you insist in having communion, the church and the community have the right to deny it. It is not a personal matter anymore. By continue to receive Holy Communion or insist that you are given Holy Communion, you have declared yourself an apostate and cannot no longer call yourself a Catholic.

The good news is that the same God that created the swallows and gave them their instincts, is also ready to forgive us. Forgiveness of our sins can only be obtained if we repent and stop the sinful behavior.