Understanding silence- when the church or God is silent- what it truly can mean!

(Journey in a Broken World)

Article by Marc Aupiais

Ever noticed how during the lives of many of her prophets- mother church does not tell us much?

Does this mean they are not prophets- or indeed that they are such. Also- on many issues- Mother church seems quiet as a dolphin in water- or the melting icebergs- this does not mean she is not talking in the silent groans of conscience or history.

It is foolish to interpret Mother Church's silence as indecisive- or as permissive- rather- and now I nearly quote a friend- to truly understand God when he speaks, we must first comprehend his message through his silence- as with Mother church.

When the Israelites were conquering Canaan- they were first ordered not to attack another country- as a sort of test that they succeeded in for that short moment in history. If they had attacked- God would not have helped them, or maybe just for a small amount- but for many of our events- Mother Church, and God seem silent.

Firstly- we must ask if perhaps we do not understand the language or subtle streams of intuitive truth that are constantly sent out by countless saints. If we do not comprehend this hidden message- we must truly try to listen harder- God's voice is softer than that of the saints, and more subtle still.

Often bishops, even popes misinterpret even their own words from God. The truth of God is on the edge of a hair's breadth sharpened into a blade- when we are to obey him- it is exact, not always a general path- but rather like one as a feather moving on the streams of air.

God's silence- and that of the church are often there so that we are not drowned down when we speak- they are there so that we are permitted to sound the war-cry- so that we are permitted to quietly work and clear the territory. Now I speak figuratively- but we truly are the eyes and ears of the church- and it is a silence before the storm when she is silent- when the moaning ice is softened for us personally to comprehend- so as to permit the hearing of this silence- by others, through us.

Isaiah was known for his experience with silence, and how an almost negative value of noise hit him when he heard it.

We must never interpret silence as an opportunity to permit ourselves too much freedom- but rather as an opportunity to walk past the golden locks and break the conundrum of her past- so as to secure the future before most know the necessity.

So, when Mother Rome is silent on an issue, such as the Tridentine Mystery, or the Liturgical Abuse, or many human rights violations- perhaps we simply do not hear her softer voice below all the noise we and others make- yet her silence is so that we can speak for her. It is the heat upon the butter so that we may melt it for her. We must not remain silent- for Mother Church awaits our voice- so that she may resonate in it. The Church is not called Militant for no reason- we work for justice and for truth, and peace- yet the right sort of this. When she is silent- this is a sign, whether of trust, or of danger- yet do not forget not to forget that the Laity are not called the Catholic church's Shock Troops for nothing- the truth is our weapon- reality the battleground- let us ensure that on issues of silence we see why there is silence- and follow intuition in these- so as not to be accountable for wrong- when radio silence came before the storm, or when dangerous people prevented others from hearing the truth.

Saint Paul fed firstly the early Christians with milk, with basics- but then told the Hebrews- that they also needed to move forward to proper food. When we are not fed with meat, but with milk- this is because we are not yet ready for meat. As long as we have not the capacity for the graces we desire- we will never catch them in the storm's winds.

There is not an issues in Mother church with just a lack of evangelization- no the lack is in ability to bear the grace required for God's next assault on the darkness. We should focus within for this time, even as we help others- God does not want the boat to sink- even as it fills with water as we speak- once we fill the holes in the hull- then we will succeed in rescuing the survivors from the shipwreck of our existence, with capacity to take on more passengers.

For now we must use the silence to mold into truth- surely- wherever the fortress of truth is erected- it must be supported by grace- if we protect the truth we must know the danger of half truths, and that the reason they are so attractive is that the desire for the goodness we see in these false reflections- is so often because we have been denied this good within our own souls- and evil wants to tempt us to take a lesser version of this.

We must not fall for this idea- for a lesser version of good- but rather give food to the truer version- and slowly fix our broken spines. We must look within and begin the regeneration after the wound we've been nursing for hundreds of years. Simply bucketing in the water will not help- we must patch up the breach with new putty- with internal putty- so that when high tide finally hits the beach- our little mud hut will be secure.

Silence- truly it speaks with a powerful echo of truth- let us always reverberate in the greater truths- and copy these always- knowing also that we are the pillar and foundation of all truth- and when it is spoken in us- it reverberates- it, its resonance spreads and echoes and amplifies on the echoing channel of our canyon of essence. We must know the power even of whispered truth- it is the night breeze which becomes the hurricane. We must never give up hope- nor in the slightest way ever stop fighting for the truths which are even slightly greater- we do this by grabbing onto the greater truth- and finding the whole spectrum moving with us into the sunlight, and the depths of faith's ocean.