An
adoring silence
16. Nevertheless
this mystery is continuously veiled, enveloped in silence,(35) lest an
idol be created in place of God. Only in a progressive purification of the
knowledge of communion, will man and God meet and recognize in an eternal
embrace their unending connaturality of love.
Thus is born what
is called the apophatism of the Christian East: the more man grows in the
knowledge of God, the more he perceives him as an inaccessible mystery, whose
essence cannot be grasped. This should not be confused with an obscure
mysticism in which man loses himself in enigmatic, impersonal realities. On the
contrary, the Christians of the East turn to God as Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, living persons tenderly present, to whom they utter a solemn and
humble, majestic and simple liturgical doxology. But they perceive that one
draws close to this presence above all by letting oneself be taught an adoring
silence, for at the culmination of the knowledge and experience of God is his
absolute transcendence. This is reached through the prayerful assimilation of
scripture and the liturgy more than by systematic meditation.
In the humble
acceptance of the creature's limits before the infinite transcendence of a God
who never ceases to reveal himself as God - Love, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ in the joy of the Holy Spirit, I see expressed the attitude of prayer
and the theological method which the East prefers and continues to offer all
believers in Christ.
We must confess
that we all have need of this silence, filled with the presence of him who is
adored: in theology, so as to exploit fully its own sapiential and spiritual
soul; in prayer, so that we may never forget that seeing God means coming down
the mountain with a face so radiant that we are obliged to cover it with a veil
(cf. Ex 34:33), and that our gatherings may make room for God's presence
and avoid self - celebration; in preaching, so as not to delude ourselves that
it is enough to heap word upon word to attract people to the experience of God;
in commitment, so that we will refuse to be locked in a struggle without love
and forgiveness. This is what man needs today; he is often unable to be silent
for fear of meeting himself, of feeling the emptiness that asks itself about
meaning; man who deafens himself with noise. All, believers and non - believers
alike, need to learn a silence that allows the Other to speak when and how he
wishes, and allows us to understand his words.
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