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| Parable of the Lioness and the Antelope |
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| Written by Maryjean Zarick | |
| Sunday, 24 February 2008 | |
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Though I rarely have time to watch TV, the other night I did catch a rather intriguing episode of Animal Planet. It seems that in the high dry interior of Kenya, there was rumor of a lioness who was keeping company with an antelope. An animal expert traveled to the game reserve to see if there was any truth to the rumor. She did, indeed, find an adolescent lioness who seemingly had abandoned her lion family and had “adopted” an antelope calf that was only a few weeks old.The local people had name the lion “Kamunyak,” which, in their language, meant “Blessed One.” They talked of this as a sign from God. The lion would not let the antelope out of her sight. She nurtured him and protected him, to the point of preventing him from returning to the herd. The one thing she could not do, though, was feed him, and the antelope was starving. The lion also was starving. In the normal order of things, the lion would have been living in a pride of related females who would all give birth in the same season and would raise their cubs together. Some females would stay with the cubs while others would hunt and return with fresh meat for all. Because Kamunyak would not leave her antelope alone, she could not hunt. Now while the local people saw this event as miracle of peaceable tolerance, I was left with a different lesson. It seems to me that when we attach ourselves to those things (or people) which we should not, the natural order is broken. We become separated from our spiritual family and we run the risk of starving spiritually. Trying to fill the void with inappropriate attachments, only serves to separate us more and more from the source of life, the only One True God. In the end, both Kamunyak and the antelope became so weak, that when a lone male lion descended upon them, the antelope could not run and Kamunyak had no strength left with which to defend her helpless friend. The antelope was killed and consumed and Kamunyak was left to suffer her grief alone. So too with us, if we persist in pursuing passions that separate us from the protection and strength of our Christian community, we will be left weak and defenseless. Satan will patiently wait for the right time to attack us and anyone else whom we have engaged in our senseless passion. Like Kamunyak, we will be left alone in darkness to suffer pain and grief. Kamunyak did not learn her lesson. She attached herself five more times to antelope calves. Each attachment came to the same tragic end of starvation and death. Let us not persist in our unhealthy attachments which rob us of spiritual life. Instead, this lent, let us renew our bonds to our church community through prayer, fasting and most of all by attending services. In this way, we will find the strength to battle the enemy and he will not find us alone and defenseless.
Maryjean is a professional harpist and the owner of Paradise Harp Music. She is a member of St. Stephen the Protomartyr OCA in Longwood Florida. The above mentioned program was called "Heart of the Lioness," on the Discovery Channel.
           
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 24 October 2008 ) |
[Parable of the Lioness and the Antelope]
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Well said. We must take care of ourselves before we can help others, like giving ourselves oxygen on an airplane before we give the oxygen mask to our children.
Blessings,
Di