Walking the Way of the Cross and catching a monkey

In the 40 days of Lent we prepare for Easter with prayer, fasting, and offering as we follow Jesus and “walk the way of the cross.”  When we give up things in Lent it makes us more aware of our strong attachment to the world: to habits and to things.  Jesus said, “Anyone who does not pick up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. If anyone finds his life, he will lose it.  If anyone loses his life because of me, he will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39) This statement is preceded by verse 37: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.  Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” This is a very hard teaching.

Do you know how you catch a monkey?  I read that you take a box with a fist sized hole in it and put a banana in the box.  The monkey comes along and grabs hold of the banana, but can’t pull his hand back out of the box while holding the banana.  The monkey catcher comes along and picks up the box with the monkey on the outside of the box and his little monkey hand inside the box clinging to the banana.  Since the monkey won’t let go of the banana the monkey is caught.

Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest, wrote about the spiritual issue of attachment.  An attachment is the emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some thing or some person you cannot be happy.  He wrote: “An attachment by its very nature makes you vulnerable to emotional turmoil and is always threatening to shatter your peace.”  He said the only way to win the battle of attachments is to drop them.  And we can do that by realizing three truths:  Truth One:  The belief that without that person or thing you will not be happy is a false truth.  This is simply not true.  Truth Two:  You can enjoy things and people on a nonattachment, a non-clinging basis.  You do this by refusing to hold onto things with the belief that you will not be happy without them.  This means living life with open hands.  The third truth is to “learn to enjoy the scent of a thousand flowers so that you will not cling to one.” de Mello says it is precisely our attachments that prevent us from developing a wider and more varied taste for things and people.

This Lent as you are attempting to ‘give up chocolate’ or ‘tv’ or ‘candy’ – or whatever you have chosen to give up as your Lenten fast - reflect upon your attachments.  Consider what feelings and beliefs lie beneath these attachments which cause us to cling rather than gently hold.  Our Lenten fasts can help us become more self-aware as we draw closer to Christ.

Travis Greenman+