don't be a monkey
How do you catch a monkey? Here’s how they do it in one of the countries in Africa. They cut the coconut in half, take out its contents, only the shell is left. Then on one of the halves they would make a hole just big enough for the hand of the monkey to fit in. Then they put an orange inside the coconut shell, join the shell tightly together so that it won’t break, tie the coconut with a strong cord so that it cannot be pulled away. There you have a perfect monkey trap.
When a monkey comes it would sniff the sweet smell of the orange, looks for it, finds it hidden inside the coconut shell, reach out for it, get hold of it in his hands and it is trapped. Why is it trapped? Because the monkey is too greedy and too stupid to let go of the orange, which could not fit through the hole. It will hold on to the orange in his hand even though it sees the hunter coming to catch it. Never would it let go. And that is how they say a monkey is trapped.
Come after me Jesus said and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately Peter and Andrew, James and John let go of their nets, let go of their boats and their father and followed Jesus. This very simple call of Jesus, this very short narrative of Matthew, this very brief exchange between Jesus and his first disciples will be duplicated by your seminary formation in the next 8 or 5 years until letting go of the things you value can become a habit, until letting go of the things you want can become a natural reflex in you and finally until this habit of letting go, this reflex of letting go becomes a choice - a choice for the sake of Jesus, a choice so that I can become a fisher of men.
When you are forced to wake up at a time you still don’t want to wake up you are made to let go of what you want. When you are made to study when you prefer not to study you are made to let go of what you prefer. When you are asked to do housecleaning when all you want is to play football you are asked to let go of what you want. When you are made to pray when you don’t want to pray you are made to do what you do not want to do. When you are made to stay put when all you wanted was to stay out and go home, you are being asked to let go of what you want. These will be repeated, and repeated, and repeated still, until letting go becomes a habit, until letting go becomes a reflex, up until letting go becomes a choice, a choice I am no longer forced to make but a choice I make on my own. Only then can you follow Jesus to become a fisher of men.
In this institution as you grow higher, as the formative years go by, that basic denial must slowly become evident. Ang mga ingat magahibi, ang mga paloy-paloy maguwa ukon paguwa-on, ang mga langloy mabilin, ang mga agak mawigit but those who have braced themselves and are courageous enough, those who can stand up and fight the good fight will grow towards the maturity required of a minister of God. Only those who are men enough, only those who can say to themselves “I can live without that,” or “I can be happy even without that” can remain and follow till the end. Only men who have imbibed a sense of asceticism can move on to the priesthood.
Remember that the priesthood is basically a denial - a denial of something and even of someone. By denial I am not referring to something or someone bad. In Christ denial means I recognize a higher priority, I recognize a greater value. It is not in anyway implying that you should not love your parents or you should not want to go to movies anymore, nor should you ever fall in love with someone. The denial rather is caused by a fascination with the person of Jesus, a fascination with his work, an allure and an attraction that makes all others, even my other loves become secondary. James and John, Peter and Andrew were so caught up with this person, with the person of Jesus that they immediately left everything to follow him. This is the reason why we come together every Sunday for Benediction - we gather to the object of our fascination, we gather around him who caused us to deny what we want, who caused us to deny what we desire and who caused us even to deny what we love for his sake and his church.
Unless we can do that, unless we have such capacity, and form such capacity in us, we can never really become good and happy priests.
So how do you catch a monkey? You give it something or someone it couldn’t and wouldn’t let go. Stupid monkey. Don’t be a monkey.
When a monkey comes it would sniff the sweet smell of the orange, looks for it, finds it hidden inside the coconut shell, reach out for it, get hold of it in his hands and it is trapped. Why is it trapped? Because the monkey is too greedy and too stupid to let go of the orange, which could not fit through the hole. It will hold on to the orange in his hand even though it sees the hunter coming to catch it. Never would it let go. And that is how they say a monkey is trapped.
Come after me Jesus said and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately Peter and Andrew, James and John let go of their nets, let go of their boats and their father and followed Jesus. This very simple call of Jesus, this very short narrative of Matthew, this very brief exchange between Jesus and his first disciples will be duplicated by your seminary formation in the next 8 or 5 years until letting go of the things you value can become a habit, until letting go of the things you want can become a natural reflex in you and finally until this habit of letting go, this reflex of letting go becomes a choice - a choice for the sake of Jesus, a choice so that I can become a fisher of men.
When you are forced to wake up at a time you still don’t want to wake up you are made to let go of what you want. When you are made to study when you prefer not to study you are made to let go of what you prefer. When you are asked to do housecleaning when all you want is to play football you are asked to let go of what you want. When you are made to pray when you don’t want to pray you are made to do what you do not want to do. When you are made to stay put when all you wanted was to stay out and go home, you are being asked to let go of what you want. These will be repeated, and repeated, and repeated still, until letting go becomes a habit, until letting go becomes a reflex, up until letting go becomes a choice, a choice I am no longer forced to make but a choice I make on my own. Only then can you follow Jesus to become a fisher of men.
In this institution as you grow higher, as the formative years go by, that basic denial must slowly become evident. Ang mga ingat magahibi, ang mga paloy-paloy maguwa ukon paguwa-on, ang mga langloy mabilin, ang mga agak mawigit but those who have braced themselves and are courageous enough, those who can stand up and fight the good fight will grow towards the maturity required of a minister of God. Only those who are men enough, only those who can say to themselves “I can live without that,” or “I can be happy even without that” can remain and follow till the end. Only men who have imbibed a sense of asceticism can move on to the priesthood.
Remember that the priesthood is basically a denial - a denial of something and even of someone. By denial I am not referring to something or someone bad. In Christ denial means I recognize a higher priority, I recognize a greater value. It is not in anyway implying that you should not love your parents or you should not want to go to movies anymore, nor should you ever fall in love with someone. The denial rather is caused by a fascination with the person of Jesus, a fascination with his work, an allure and an attraction that makes all others, even my other loves become secondary. James and John, Peter and Andrew were so caught up with this person, with the person of Jesus that they immediately left everything to follow him. This is the reason why we come together every Sunday for Benediction - we gather to the object of our fascination, we gather around him who caused us to deny what we want, who caused us to deny what we desire and who caused us even to deny what we love for his sake and his church.
Unless we can do that, unless we have such capacity, and form such capacity in us, we can never really become good and happy priests.
So how do you catch a monkey? You give it something or someone it couldn’t and wouldn’t let go. Stupid monkey. Don’t be a monkey.
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