Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message
Silence and Hope
June 7, 2017
The Beatitudes tell us that God is there active
and loving where we least expect: blessed are those who are starving, thirsty,
poor and downtrodden, and mourning. It
is in the dry spots of our spiritual lives, the moments of pain when God seems
to mock us with his silence, when God is most present, Jesus says.
C.S. Lewis, grieving the death of his wife Joy
Davidman wrote:
“Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once. And that seeming was as strong as this. What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble? I tried to put some of these thoughts to [a friend] this afternoon. He reminded me that the same thing seems to have happened to Christ: ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’ I know. Does that make it easier to understand? Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not ‘So there’s no God after all,’ but ‘So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.’” (from A Grief Observed)
It is when we feel the absence and silence of
God most that we need most to trust and hope.
We must not draw the conclusion that God is somehow party to the evils
we are going through. God is there to
help, to stabilize, to support. He is
not a wacky great uncle, a fairy Godmother, or Santa Claus there to grant us
our wishes, no matter how just and fair they may be.
His silence deepens our yearning and dependence. The prayers he answers in ways not expected
by us are evidence of ongoing love, not neglect. The Prayer Book teaches that God will grant
us, eventually, more than we can ask or imagine.
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Tony+
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