When we are powerless, let us be quiet and let God act. (p 55, “Searching for and Maintaining Peace” by Fr. Jacques Philippe)
This is perhaps the most difficult thing we can do..to be quiet in our powerlessness. It seems so contrary. We want to shout at the injustice. We want to wail at the hurt. We want to cry out in anger. It is the most difficult thing we can do…to be quiet in our powerlessness.
In a world where so many things seem so wrong we are often surrounded by the shouting, the wailing and the crying out in such volume and in so many different directions any action, let alone action restoring peace and justice, seem even more distant and less real in our lives. This is where our Lenten journey must begin, in the silence of the desert.
Cardinal Robert Sarah in his book, “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise” writes these prophetic words, “Silence is not a form of passivity. By remaining silent, man can avoid a greater evil. It is not an earthly dereliction of duty to place your trust in Heaven.” (#289)
It is in the intimate and chaste silence where we wait for the breath of God we discover the active movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The silence of intimacy and chastity invites us into a deeper and fuller understanding of our call to serve in the sacrifice of love.
When I was on retreat at the beginning of the new year I spent a lot of time one afternoon praying and thinking about this gift of silence and of course my thoughts turned to baseball. I don’t know why my prayer life and baseball are so wrapped into one another but this, if you will be patient with me, is an area of minor but (at least for me) fruitful insight.
Baseball is a game of silence in many ways. Much of the communication is done without a word being spoken and more importantly, for this purpose, the in-between moments of the pitching and hitting and fielding happen in silence. But it is a silence with a purpose. As the batter awaits the next pitch his mind needs to be focused on the past and the future at the same time..as does the catcher, pitcher, fielders and those on the bench awaiting their turn at bat. In silence he, the batter, contemplates what will be as he remembers what has been to prepare for the what is happening. If he breaks the intimacy of the moment by allowing other thoughts to intrude upon what “is” he will fail to be able to act by allowing the noise of the crowd, the chatter of the infield, the thoughts of other things to distract and pervert his true course of action.
Cardinal Sarah writes, “Far from noise and easy distractions, in solitude and silence, if we are intent solely on transmitting the Divine will, it will be granted to us to see with God’s eyes and to call things as he perceives and judges them.” (#296) And this is baseball, the hitter even in chaste and intimate silence still may fail, but he will still see the fullness of the action because he has heard and seen within the silence of the game as he continues to prepare for what will be next.
This, I believe, is a good metaphor for much of our active spiritual life. Noise and distraction are to easy to fall into and way to common in our lives. Like baseball, when we loose focus on the one in front of us, when we allow ourselves to seek so many distractions, we fail to see the good being prepared for us to hit, catch and throw in the blessing of love. We live our spiritual and physical love non-intimately and unchastely because our minds are filled with the clutter of noise. It is in accepting the joy of God’s gifts for what they are and focusing on who we are that we seek to be the woman and man God created us to be. This is where we begin to live in true intimate chaste silence and the most difficult thing we can do…to be quiet in our powerlessness…becomes the most fruitful.
“How many people lose their peace because they want, at any price, to change those around them! How many married people become agitated and irritated because they would like their spouses not to have this or that fault! The Lord asks us, on the contrary, to bear with patience the faults of others. (p 55 Fr. Philippe)

God bless,
Fr. Mark