Silence Of God
God will come at an unexpected moment. He may not come as we
expect. But, certainly He will come. He will hear our prayer one
day. One day I was meditating on the conversation that took place between Jesus
and the Canaanite woman narrated in the Scripture (Mt15:21-28, Mk7:24-30). I was
a bit disturbed at the way Jesus humiliated that poor Canaanite woman.
She had a lot of expectations from Jesus. She was sure that her daughter
would be healed by the mighty power of Jesus. With this hope, she
came to Jesus. But, unfortunately, “He did not answer her at all”
(Mt.15:23). He was silent in front of her. All her expectations
were been shattered. Even the disciples came to her aid. But Jesus said, “I was
sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt15:24).
But, she was persistent and did not leave him. She pleaded
with him again, “Lord help me”. He answered, “It is not fair to
take the children's food and throw it to dogs”. Though she was disappointed
again, she said, “Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
their master's table”. At last, this time, Jesus heard her prayer. He healed her
daughter.
I wondered to see why Jesus took such a long time to hear the
prayer of that poor woman. Why was He silent in front of
her? The reason commonly understood is that she was a gentile
woman. But, if we examine the entire New Testament, we see that
many gentiles were healed by Jesus (Luke17:17). Certainly, Jesus
had a strange plan when he behaved like this. What was that plan?
Why was Jesus silent?
There are also incidents even in our
own lives when we experience the 'cruel' silence of God. I
remember an event that happened during the Tsunami period. A woman
gave birth to a child many years after her marriage through the powerful
intercession of Our Lady of Velankanni. As a token of her gratitude, she visited
the Velankanni Shrine, when the child became six. She offered a
gold ring to our Blessed Mother Mary and surrendered her son to her. After this,
as she was purchasing something from one of the shops in front of the Shrine,
the disastrous Tsunami hit and the giant waves took her only son away.
Tired after searching for her son, she came back to the altar and being
overcome with grief and with a sorrowful heart, she looked at the face of Jesus
and asked, “Jesus, why have you done this to me? Why are you silent in my
life?”. These questions echo even today through many instances of
our life. Even in the Scripture, we see many examples where the powerful God
maintains silence amidst problems of human beings. God was silent in the life of
the woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years (Lk8:12) .
Another woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years (Lk13:10).
For eighteen years, God was silent in her life. We see a paralyzed man who had
been ill for thirty eight years (Jn 5). It is annoying to know
that God was silent in his life for such a long time. We see
another incident, viz. Lazarus, whom Jesus loved very much, fell ill (Jn
11). He was about to die. Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus,
informed Jesus about this. But Jesus did not go and heal Lazarus.
He was silent. He waited until the fourth day to reach the
home of Lazarus by when he was covered with stench. What we notice here is that
Martha and Mary lost all their expectations and hope to save Lazarus, because
Jesus did not turn up at the appropriate time. They too experienced the 'cruel'
silence of Jesus. But the true climax comes not with the shedding
of tears by Jesus over the dead man Lazarus, but rather after the mysterious
silence, Jesus with his powerful voice calls out loudly, “Lazarus, come out” and
the dead man comes out.
Jesus always comes at unexpected moments with a mighty powerful
voice, after a mysterious silence. After a long 12 years of
silence, the woman with hemorrhages experienced the power of the mighty voice of
Jesus at an unexpected moment. The same with the crippled woman and also with
the paralyzed man. This is what we see in the life of that
Canaanite woman (Mt.15:28).
Then the question arises again, why
is God silent in the miseries of our lives? An example from the
life of Jesus Himself can give us this answer. As far as the
Scripture is concerned, Jesus prayed for Himself only once in His life.
It was at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to the Father to remove
the cup of sorrow from him (Mt.26: 39). But, God did not hear this
prayer. But rather, I would say, Heavenly Father heard the prayer of Jesus three
days after His death. But there was a long silence before that.
Because the Father wanted Jesus to undergo that painful suffering so that
the whole world could be saved. Therefore, every silence of God is
salvific. Make use of this “SILENCE” to save others and thus
continue the salvific act of Christ. Jesus knew the meaning of that silence.
That is why Jesus told his disciples, “the Son of Man will be handed over to the
chief priests and the Scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they
will hand him over to the gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and
flog him, and kill him”(Mk 10:33,34). Jesus knew that He had to
undergo pain. But he prayed so much that He could be strengthened
to face those events. This is what prayer means. But
we have to undergo suffering and uncertainties in our lives so that we are able
to share the salvific act of Christ and thus save others through our
sufferings. It is through our suffering that we are shaped. But,
do not be discouraged by suffering. Pray constantly so that we can be
strengthened to overcome the sufferings in life. Therefore, God
will come at an unexpected moment. He may not come as we expect.
But, certainly He will come. He will hear our prayer one day. Prayers are
like smoke, which always goes up. One day, it will reach the destination. We
need to do only one thing. Cling to Jesus like the Canaanite woman till He comes
and enters our lives. Be “stubborn” with Jesus. In Gen.32:26,
Jacob told God, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me”. And
God blessed him. In Mk10:46-52, we see Bartimaeus who shouted out
and said, “Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me”. Many asked him to be quiet.
But he cried out even more loudly. Jesus stood STILL.
Therefore, call upon His name, HE WILL STAND STILL
AND LISTEN TO OUR PRAYER
