Florida Catholic | God Will Find You Amid The Silence

God will find you amid the silence

Published: 03.14.08

The next few days provide us with an opportunity to refocus our efforts and our energy so that we can truly experience new life at Easter.”

My dear friends,

How about turning off the television this week?

Or perhaps you could drive without using your cell phone.

What if you turned off the radio during your morning and evening commute?

This is the beginning of Holy Week, the culmination of the Lenten season. Are you spiritually prepared? Have you been listening to God these 40 days?

At the beginning of Lent, I suggested some things you could do to improve your spiritual preparation, such as going to daily Mass and spending more time at prayer.

But like New Year’s resolutions, Lenten resolutions tend to fall by the wayside as time passes.

That is why this week is so important. The next few days provide us with an opportunity to refocus our efforts and our energy so that we can truly experience new life at Easter.

That is not easy in our hectic world. It is especially difficult for those juggling jobs and family, as so many couples do today. It is difficult for teenagers and young adults, who are busy with homework and sports or other after-school activities.

It is especially difficult for all of us because we seldom have a moment of silence. Our televisions are on 12 hours a day at home. We listen to the radio in the car. Our young people seem forever “plugged in” to their iPods or video games, or else they are text messaging their friends and chatting on the Internet.

All these modern devices are convenient, but the drawback is that they take away our quiet time. And that is precisely where we will find God — in the silence.

I am convinced that God does not compete with technology. Every noisy modern gadget we attach to our bodies serves to drown out his voice in our lives.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus went out to the desert to pray. Even 2,000 years ago, before cell phones and iPods and CD players and computers, before billboards and commercials and neon lights, the Son of God sought the emptiness and solitude of the desert. When he wanted to be close to his heavenly Father, he left behind his disciples and the crowds that followed him and sought God — in the silence.

We must do the same.

For as more than one spiritual writer has said, God is the only one who can fill our emptiness, and we have to empty ourselves to find God.

That is why people make retreats. They go to a place apart, away from the cares and distractions of everyday life, to get closer to God.

Let us make this Holy Week resemble a spiritual retreat as much as possible. Reduce the decibels. Decrease the pace. Seek the Almighty in the silence of your heart. He waits there for the quiet moments when he can make his voice heard. He waits there for you to make time for him.

God will find you amid the silence

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