What is Holding You Back?

 

Monkeys, while cute and jovial animals, are not known for being very smart.  In my previous job, Fr. John Kamwendo, a name we are all familiar with, talked about his life in Tanzania while he was a visiting seminarian.  Fr. John, as a boy, worked on his father’s farm.  His job was to keep the monkeys away from the crops planted each year, usually peanuts.  Fr. John would tell me about all the ways they would trap or chase off the monkeys from their fields and there was one that I found interesting, the trap.

 

 

There is not a lot of thought put into trapping a monkey, for they are not considered the smartest animals in the forest.  A trap was simply a box or jar with a banana in it.  Imagine a jar with an opening 3-4 inches wide.  To set the trap, all they would do is slide a banana through the top and lay it in the bottom of the jar.  The monkey would then reach in the jar, grab the banana and try to get it out. 

 

Unfortunately, again not the smartest creatures, the monkey did not have the decision making skills to grab the banana on the end and slide it through the opening.  It would simply grab the banana in the middle and try to pull it out, to no success.  Instead of giving up on the banana, and walking away, the monkey is so stubborn, that it sits there, holding onto the banana, not giving it up for any reason, making it easy for the farmer, or other prey, to eradicate them from the farm.

 

I often think about this story during the Lenten season, especially later in Lent, as we are now.  We are almost to the end.  While many of us have done a great job with abstaining from whatever we have given up for Lent, now is about the time some of us start dreaming of consuming again, the one thing we have deprived ourselves.  It is so close to the end and we cannot wait to treat ourselves to that soda, piece of chocolate, potato chips, whatever. 

 

This leads me to these questions:  What are the things I hold onto, out of stubbornness, out of fear, etc., that I cannot overcome or has a strangle hold on my life?  What are the things that I grasp onto and will not give up, no matter what the consequences?  We all have the one idea, or vice that has a hold of us.  Some of us have a lot more than one.  Looking at these vices, are we acting like the monkey, and letting it take hold of our lives, refusing to give it up, or moving things around to make it better for all of those around us?

 

Take these last few days of the Lenten season and instead of counting the days until Easter, pray that God gives you the courage to remove the things that have a strangle hold on your life, and ask for the strength to live without them.