Thought of the Day Jul 10, 2020 Jesus and silence
Even
Jesus used silence at times to teach a message. Jesus was initially silent when
the Canaanite mother pleaded for him to deliver her daughter from the demonic
spirit. He was waiting for her to express her faith, so that she could
experience the power of God.
Jesus
was silent when he was falsely accused before the Sanhedrin. Their minds were
made up. They were looking for an excuse to justify their pre-meditated
decision. He was also silent before Herod who saw him as a bit of a curiosity.
The silence of Jesus before Pilate was an indication that Jesus could defend
himself, but refrained for the sake of fulfilling the will of the Father.
The
Incarnate Son of God both experienced in his humanity the silence of God in the
midst of his suffering and death on the cross as well as shows us how to
respond in our humanity. The silence of God welled up the cry of Psalm 22: “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my
God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”
(Ps 22:1-2) Because of our sins, which he took upon himself, he experienced a
sense of abandonment by the Father. Even with this sense of absence, Jesus
cries out: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” He trustfully waits
in silence for the Father to act.
“Jesus
made his own this cry of humanity that suffers from God’s apparent absence, and
carried this cry to the Father’s heart. By praying in this ultimate solitude
together with the whole of humanity, he opens the Heart of God to us.” (Benedict
XVI, Homily, 6 February 2008)
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