This viral phenomenon resonates so deeply because it mirrors something fundamental about primates—including us humans. Scientifically, humans and monkeys (like macaques) share a common evolutionary ancestry; we are both primates in the animal kingdom. Our behaviors often overlap strikingly with those of our primate cousins. Monkeys form tight-knit troops (tribes), defend territory fiercely, engage in dominance hierarchies, bully subordinates, create outcasts, and sometimes reject the weak or different. These are survival-driven instincts: aggression to establish order, exclusion to protect resources, and tribalism to ensure group cohesion.
Humans exhibit strikingly similar patterns. We gather in tribes—whether families, nations, political groups, or online communities—and often fight over territory, status, or identity. Bullying is rampant: children torment peers in schools, adults cyberbully strangers on social media, and people exclude or mock others based on appearance, beliefs, sexuality, race, gender, body type, or any perceived difference. Rudeness, nastiness, and cruelty erupt for no apparent reason beyond an instinctual urge to assert superiority or belonging. These are not just "bad habits"—they are natural, animalistic, primitive behaviors rooted in our shared biology as social animals. Like Punch's troop rejecting the vulnerable outsider, humans too often reject, judge, and marginalize those who don't fit the "norm," turning fellow members of our species into pariahs.
Yet herein lies the profound contrast—and the hope—that Catholicism offers. Lent arrives precisely to address this fallen human nature. The season reminds us that we are indeed animals, subject to these base instincts inherited from our fallen state (what theology calls original sin). We are dust, as Ash Wednesday solemnly declares: "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19). The hourglass is draining; life is short, and our animalistic tendencies pull us toward division, selfishness, and cruelty. But Lent calls us to transcend them.
Through fasting and abstinence, we practice self-control, denying the body its immediate gratifications (food, comfort, excess) to remember that material things are not ends in themselves. Prayer deepens our union with God, elevating the soul above mere instinct. Almsgiving and works of charity turn us outward in love, helping the vulnerable instead of rejecting them—like Punch finding eventual acceptance, but on a divine scale. Lent restores balance: acknowledging the animal in us while nurturing the breath of God within (Genesis 2:7), the divine spark that makes us more than beasts.
Catholicism is not a "natural religion" that merely reflects or caters to human experience and instincts. It comes from God and elevates human nature to the divine. It refuses to leave us in our tribal, bullying, rejecting state. Instead, it commands us to love our enemies, forgive endlessly, and see Christ in every person—regardless of sex, gender, sexuality, race, or body type. The videos of little Punch serve as a mirror: God sees us as savages at times, treating each other badly despite being the same species, dividing and judging over superficial differences, just as monkeys reject an outsider.
This Lent, let us renew the call to become more Christlike. Accept that we are animals with fallen tendencies, but we are also called to be divine—sons and daughters of light, made in God's image. "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). We were not meant to treat each other like prey or outcasts. We are meant for communion, mercy, and holiness. Get holy or die trying—because the ash on our foreheads reminds us: time is limited.
Some people on social media even made videos of Jesus comforting the young monkey:
Let Punch's story stir us to reject the monkey within and embrace the divine child of God we are destined to be.
Sources:
- Psychology/Behavioral Science: Harlow's classic experiments on rhesus monkeys and attachment (e.g., preference for comforting "cloth mothers" over wire ones providing food), demonstrating primates' deep need for emotional security and touch—paralleling Punch's bond with his plush toy (see Harry Harlow's work, 1950s-60s, often referenced in attachment theory discussions).
- Catholic Sources:
- Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 355-384): On human beings as body and soul, made in God's image, with fallen nature due to original sin leading to disordered inclinations.
- Genesis 1-3: Creation, the breath of life, and the Fall.
- Matthew 5:48: Call to perfection.
- Ash Wednesday liturgy: "Remember you are dust..."
- Pope Francis, Laudato Si' (2015): Reflections on human ecology, our place in creation, and overcoming egoism through fraternity and care for the vulnerable.
