A silence that should serve to draw closer to Jesus Christ and through Him to others.
It has been stressed with some insistence -perhaps to help us overcome the selfishness we carry within us- that man is a 'social being'. And it is true. From time to time we are reminded of the need to be in solidarity with all the other inhabitants of the planet, worrying about hunger in a distant country or on our own doorstep.
The Church often brings to mind the "communion of saints," that spiritual bond that unites us all "children of God in Christ Jesus," which makes each of us responsible, in an ineffable way, for the fate of others, in good and evil.
All these considerations seem to me to be very correct. It is now up to us to recognize that fraternal solidarity among us does not exclude neither silence nor solitude; indeed, it demands them, if we truly want to live now a "communion of men" and, in its day, a "communion of men" and, in its day, a "communion of men".communion of saints". It is the same solitary silence in which an artist creates and ponders his works; in which a mother contemplates and loves her children.
Silence and solitude -which in truth is oneself with God; the solitude of oneself with oneself ends up being truly unbearable- are necessary for each one to become aware of himself, of his existence; of "who he is" and of "who he is for".
"The humanity of those who never shut up, fades away", he said very accurately. Guardini. And only in this way will we today become aware of our own humanity, of the meaning of our walk on earth.
To enjoy this in enriching solitude with Christ, we have a great enemy: noise. I have the impression that the present moment of our civilization is producing too much noise, outside and inside man. The false news about the current Pope is a good example.
Sometimes we surround ourselves with too much internal noise, noise of the spirit, to escape from the solitude of silence. The television on all day long, the radio in the car and in the office. We look for information from any country and on the most absurd subjects, which we do not even know how to assimilate for something useful.
Noises in the ear and in the head that prevent us from living the joy of feeling the flapping of a mosquito. And it is a pity, because at that moment we would begin to know that we are alive and to realize what our own life is worth.
The beauty and richness of silence expressed it very well Jean GuittonIt leads us to the most intimate point of ourselves, there where eternity touches us and vivifies us, there where eternity speaks to us in a whisper of words".
And in the Bible we read: "in silence and in hope you will find your strength" (cf. Is 30:15). It is true. Calm and solitude recreate within our spirit the moment of our own creation, they allow us to reproduce - and make our own - Adam's encounter with God in the garden of paradise.
Perhaps one of the fruits -I do not know if it is directly desired- of the battles of the ecologists is, precisely, to invite us to yearn for silence, savoring in solitude the silence of nature. The plane flies by, and the clouds remain silent.
But the stillness of nature is not enough for man; and since he cannot rid himself entirely of external noise, he needs peace within himself even more urgently. Even amidst the noise of the avenues, the orange trees produce their fruit in the quiet of the countryside. Even the man of today, who works and consumes himself in a thousand efforts of service to keep the world on its feet, longs for peace of soul, of spirit.
Only in the solitude of that silence will it be able to bear its best fruit.The contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Word of God.
Ernesto Juliá, ernesto.julia@gmail.com
Originally published in Religion Confidential.
