Monkey Mind
I am going to start this reflection with some oriental wisdom called the monkey
mind. St. Paul called it a futile mind.
The monkey mind is this: The human mind can be like it’s filled with monkeys,
jumping around, screeching, chattering and carrying on endlessly. Our emotions
are different monkeys in our mind. It is said monkey mind overtakes an entire
society.
I know I’ve been there with stuff screaming, screeching and jumping around
in my head; so many different things fighting inside of me. Fear has been especially
loud pointing out the unknown hidden things to worry about.
Faith calms a fearful and futile monkey mind. Paul tells us “Truth is in
Jesus.” He writes do not live in the futility of your mind or deceitful desires.
The whole Israelite community was full of fear and deceitful desires. They
grumbled. Afraid of the unknown, they desired to go back Egypt and slavery.
They complained of hunger.
Hunger is “a strong desire or craving.” You can hunger for food, success, revenge,
love and truth. Our emotions mostly desire and crave truth.
From hunger, the multitude followed Jesus. Looking to him not for the signs
of the messiah; but, because they ate. They wanted to make Jesus king because
he had quieted a hunger.
The Israelites left Egypt. No one made them leave. They saw the plagues and
the signs that God set upon Egypt. They saw the miracles of God. They saw the
parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army. They saw the
Angel of God the led the way. They had no faith; all they saw was the hunger
and hardships, the violence and the vastness of the unknown about them. The Israelites
had all these hungry emotions inside the mind of the community. The strongest
was fear.
The multitude following Jesus saw or heard of his miracles, healing and
casting out of demons. They heard Jesus teach. They were part of the miracle that
fed 5000. They had no faith; all they saw was oppression in the rulers, hunger
and hardships in life and a violent vast unknown existence. The multitude
hungered from fear.
Two sets of people existing and seeking the answer to their hunger. Today,
our society is the same. This world has put so many things screaming, screeching
and jumping in our heads. It is a world existing in fearful hunger from a lack
of faith.
It’s not necessary. If we lived as Jesus taught us and follow the
commandments of God, if we just look around to see the miracles God works in this
world despite the evil and lack of faith, we could quite the fearful and futile
monkey mind.
This is faith. Through faith, God gives himself to us to quite the hunger.
Paul tells us to put away our former way of life; renew the spirit of your
mind. God calmed the Israelite community with manna, bread from heaven. Jesus
calmed the multitude breaking the loaves and feeding them. God can calm us if
we look to him to feed us.
Fear is all about hunger. We hunger for peace. We hunger for comfort. We
hunger for safety. We hunger for an absence of conflict. We hunger for justice
and dignity. We hunger for much in our fear. Faith calms the fearful and futile mind. Faith renews the spirit of our
mind.
Faith in God, Jesus Christ, can rid us of hunger. Christ quiets the hungers
that exist in our lives. Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever
comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
If your mind is jumping around, screeching, and chattering endlessly from
something missing, maybe it hungers for truth. Truth is in Jesus. Brothers and
Sister come to the Bread of Life.
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