Have You Ever Experienced that the More You Grasped at Things the More You Got Miserable?

Do you know how monkeys are caught is some islands? They punch a small hole in a coconut enough for the monkey’s hand to barely enter. They then put some sweets inside the coconut as bait for the monkey. Once the monkey slips his hands inside the coconut and grabbed the food inside, his whole hands is stuck. The monkey will try to pull harder and without any success of freeing his hands. He will refuse to let go of what he is holding. The hunters then will catch him without effort. Monkey stew will be served later.

The monkeys own grasping was the cause of his own demise.

We too can be guilty on this grasping. We grab money, fame, sex and power or position zealously. And once we get our hands on them, we hold to them like our life was depending on it. In fear of losing them we do the most craziest and dangerous things. The funny thing about life is the more we try to control it the more we get frustrated.

Our society preaches that if we want to be happy go get what you want. Be a go-getter! They said that humanity have never been this depressed in the whole of history.

So what is wrong with us?

I think the cause of our depression and misery is missing out the very nature of our humanity. We were not meant for grasping, but we were made for self-giving love. We are made in the image and likeness of God and God is Love.

Saint Paul writes, “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…”

Pope John Paul said Christ reveals our humanity to ourselves. If so, then grasping is not the proper attitude and action in living our lives. The path to being fully human is the path of self-emptying. The path to a joyful existence is forgetting ourselves in self-giving love.

The paradox of Christianity is the more we forget ourselves the more we find our true nature. And the less we grab the more we get filled. Only with an open hand can God place his blessings our palms.