This is what poor little Oliver, driven by his hunger, had the temerity to ask in Oliver Twist.
Charles Dickens makes Mr Bumble spell out the reasons for his horror at such a request. First, Oliver ‘won’t ask for more when he knows what’s in store’; second, ‘Never before has a boy wanted more!’; third, this is ‘encouraging others to wallow in gluttony’.
But is it such a bad thing to ask for more when we are constantly hungry? Whether rich or poor, strong or weak, happy or sad, we still want more – from life, from others, from ourselves. Is this constant dissatisfaction an asset or a liability?
Our dissatisfaction makes us grow, invent and create new things. And yet, how true it is that we ‘won’t ask for more if we know what’s in store...’! Life is full of risks. Venturing off the beaten track may get you lost, persecuted or discriminated against. Blessed are the conformists and the minimalists. They will enjoy comfort and security. But will they enjoy life or live as dead men walking?
Life always takes us a step ahead of us. Blessed are the risk-takers. They shall climb higher peaks, encounter deeper truths, discover newer pastures. Living is experiencing and facing the terrifying attractiveness of the ‘more’ of life. Yes we are made for greater things – call it God, spirit, infinity, art, science, religion or simply humanity. Being human and being alive means thirsting for more, walking the untrodden path, reaching out to a ‘beyond’ that beckons from within.
The ‘More of Me’ is attained when the ‘Me’ becomes a ‘We
No wonder this life-giving thirst is also a pain. We need to risk and explore and yet we crave for safety, security and survival. How can we walk and find rest, risk all and find all at the same time? It all depends on what this ‘more’ is all about.
For many this ‘more’ of life means more money, more things, more comforts, more power... In other words it simply means ‘more of Me’! It’s all about me, my needs, my interests, my survival. Alas, they mistake growth for bloat, seeking how to build a more shiny and bigger outward shell that only increases the emptiness inside.
The real ‘more of life’ is of a totally different nature and can only be found elsewhere. The hunger and thirst that tortures us is not for a more secure or comfortable shell. Like a little seed, the little Me inside needs to grow to the fuller Me I am called to become.
Blessed are those who discover that this greater, more beautiful and more complete ‘Me’ is beckoning from deep within the heart of ‘Others’. It is in and with others that I can find the fulness of who I can really become. In old fashioned and plain terminology we call this: Love.
Yes, we are thirsty for love for and from someone who is ‘other’ – different yet welcoming, different yet loved. Only ‘others’ can save us from ourselves, on condition that these ‘others’ are not rejected out of fear, exploited by our neediness, seduced by our craftiness or simply dominated by our power. This only reduces others to either slaves or enemies and condemns us to the despair of loneliness and meaninglessness – even in the midst of our deadly comforts, conflicts or conquests.
If we take the risk of loving others in their ‘otherness’ we will discover that the ‘More of Me’ is attained when the ‘Me’ becomes a ‘We’. ‘More of Me’ is actually ‘More of Us’ because Love is never my or anyone’s private property but a universal gift shared by one and all. We want more because we are hungry for the love that makes us one.
We still have not found a better name than God for this ‘more’ of humanity waiting to be given and received. He is the Love that is not just the more of who we are, but the most of whom we are called to become. He is waiting in our brothers and sisters to make us, in our togetherness, whole and fully alive.
True love can only utter one prayer: “Please, God, give me some more...!”
pchetcuti@gmail.com
Fr Paul Chetcuti is a member of the Society of Jesus.