6 From these animals Christ also instructs us, when He says, “Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” And again; “Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” The prophet also, to shame the ungrateful Jews, thus speaks; “The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel does not know me.” And again; “The turtle and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming, but my people knows not the judgment of the Lord his God.” From these animals, and such as these, learn to achieve virtue, and be instructed to avoid wickedness by the contrary ones.
For as the bee follows good, so the asp is destructive. Therefore shun wickedness, lest you hear it said, “The poison of asps is under their lips.” Again, the dog is devoid of shame. Hate, therefore, this kind of wickedness. The fox also is crafty, and fraudulent. Emulate not this vice; but as the bee, in flying over the meadows, does not choose every sort of flower; but selecting that which is useful, leaves the rest; so also do thou; and while surveying the whole race of irrational animals, if any thing profitable may be drawn from these, accept it; the advantages which they have naturally, make it your business to practise of your own free choice.
For in this respect also you have been honoured of God; that what they have as natural advantages He has permitted you to achieve of your own free choice, in order that you may also receive a reward. For good works with them spring not from free will, and reason, but from nature only. In other words, the bee makes honey, not because it has learned this by reason and reflection, but because it is instructed by nature. Because if the work had not been natural, and allotted to the race, some of them assuredly would have been unskilled in their art; whereas from the time that the world was first made, even to the present day, no one has observed bees resting from labour, and not making honey.
For such natural characteristics are common to the whole race. But those things which depend on our free choice are not common; for labour is necessary that they may be accomplished.
Source: Homilies on the Statues (New Advent)