Silent Embrace
(Is.50:4-7; Phil.2:6-11; Lk.23:1-49)
(Thanks to Fr Don from The Word This Week, here is a podcast discussing today’s homily:)
Many of us struggle with silence. We are so used to noise that we think we cannot live without music, TV and other sounds, including our own voices.
Yet, in our hearts we know that’s wrong. Pope Benedict XVI once observed: ‘We are no longer able to hear God – there are too many different frequencies filling our ears.’ [i]
Silence is not emptiness; it’s an invitation to go deeper into our lives, and most especially into our relationship with God. This is a message we can take from the harrowing story of the Passion of Christ.
Jesus suffers the cruelest of abuse: betrayal, false accusations, insults, imprisonment, mockery, theft, beatings, scourging, crucifixion and even a stabbing. And how does he respond? He is silent. He doesn’t even complain.
What would you have done? Would you not have screamed, kicked, cursed, argued, struggled and done everything else you could to defend yourself? Jesus doesn’t even try. Why?
Some people think that silence in the face of adversity and injustice is weakness, but it’s much more complex than that.
All through his public ministry, Jesus encourages silence. He often invites his disciples to ‘come away’ with him to a quiet place (Mk.6:31; Mt.11:28). He knows how important it is for them to refresh and refocus by spending quiet time in prayer (Ps.46:10). And he knows that when we clothe ourselves in silence, like his Father, we are close to heaven.
In his own silence, Jesus isn’t being weak or even passive-aggressive. He is actually communing with his Father, drawing on the strength he needs to understand and endure his terrible ordeal (Jn.10:30).
He knows how healing and strengthening a silent embrace can be.
How different we are from Jesus when we suffer. We writhe and squirm; we grumble and complain, and sometimes we agonise over those we think are responsible. And yet we don’t even consider resting quietly in God’s loving embrace.
For many of us, our most precious moments are when we’re being lovingly caressed by someone special – perhaps a parent, grandparent, friend or lover. A warm hug, wrapped in silence, can be a profound moment of safety and comfort that strengthens and heals.
This is what God offers us.
Sometimes our prayer might seem fruitless, as though nothing is happening. But prayer is not telling God what we want. Rather, it’s about accepting his loving embrace in deep faith and trust. And it’s accepting that whatever God does, or doesn’t do, for us is ultimately ‘for our good’ (Rom.8:28) because he truly loves us.
Jesus faces all his sufferings in silence, because he completely trusts his Father. He is always in close communion with his Father (Jn.8:28-29), and his first responsibility is to always do his Father’s will before anything else: ‘The Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing’ (Jn.5:19).
Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary does the same thing. She suffers mightily when she sees Jesus carrying his Cross, and when she sees him suffer and die. She is in agony at the sight of her dead son’s body. And how does she respond? She is totally silent.
She, too, is in God’s silent embrace.
In his book In the School of the Holy Spirit, Jacques Philippe writes that the Spirit of God is a spirit of peace, and he speaks and acts in peace and gentleness, never in tumult and agitation. He can only penetrate our spiritual consciousness if we have within ourselves a calm zone of silence and peace. If our inner world is noisy and agitated, the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit will find it very difficult to be heard. [ii]
Our challenge is to find that calm zone deep in our hearts, and to stay there.
Silence is not emptiness.
St. Teresa of Calcutta understood this well. She often said, ‘Silence is the seed of prayer. Prayer is the seed of faith, and faith is the seed of service.’
Everything begins with silence.
The more we embrace silence – the more we rest in the loving arms of God – the closer we’ll get to him.
And the more we’ll live the life our hearts desire.
[i] http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20060910_neue-messe-munich.html
[ii] Jacques Philippe, In the School of the Holy Spirit, Scepter Publishers Inc., Strongsville OH, 2007:37.