Pope Francis, the Blessed Mother and the Lesson of Silence

Pope Francis can never be accused of not getting people's attention.  He has done it once again with a statement regarding the Blessed Mother, and many of the traditional blogs have responded by calling the Pope "Protestant" or even "blasphemer".

Ebougis, in his continuing swipes against Pope Francis, tells us that "the Holy Father has decided to put a little arsenic in the collective egg nog." Ebougis links to The Eponymous Flower, who asks, "Is Pope Francis forming Marian theology? Mary not as co-redeemer, but as a rebel?" Angelqueen.org offered an article entitled, "Pope Francis Ignites Another Controversy?" One Catholic forum website entitled, "Suscipe Domine" had a thread entitled, "Pope Francis Insults Mary" with such comments as "In St. Nicholas fashion, is it ok if I imagine St. Louis de Montfort decking our Pope?" 

John Vennari of Catholic Family News was not to be left behind. He wrote an article entitled, "Pope Francis' Protestant Meditation On Our Lady."  Mr. Vennari states, "This meditation puts the Queen of Prophets on the same level as the blind Pharisees who had no idea of what Our Lord was talking about when Jesus told them He was establishing His Kingdom."  He goes on to write that  Pope Francis "continually utters confusing statements that leave Catholics reeling the world over. The above statement about Our Lady is certainly one of the most troublesome."

What is all the consternation about? Read on.

The Holy Father was reflecting on the Gospel from Friday, December 20, which was the story of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to our Blessed Mother. Pope Francis talked about how important silence is in our spiritual lives, and how the Blessed Mother lived her life in silence. It is in the silence that we experience the great mystery of God.  God does not work in loud fanfare, but in silence, in the depths our hearts.  From Vatican Radio:

Only silence guards the mystery of the journey that a person walks with God, said Pope Francis in his homily at Mass on Friday morning at the Casa Santa Marta. May the Lord, the Pope added, give us “the grace to love the silence”, which needs to be guarded from all publicity.

In the history of salvation, neither in the clamour nor in the blatant, but the shadows and the silence are the places in which God chose to reveal himself to humankind.

The imperceptible reality from which his mystery, from time to time, took visible form, took flesh. The Pope’s reflections were inspired by the Annunciation, which was today’s Gospel reading, in particular the passage in which the angel tells Mary that the power of the Most High would “overshadow” her. The shadow, which has almost the same quality as the cloud, with which God protected the Jews in the desert, the Pope said.

“The Lord always took care of the mystery and hid the mystery. He did not publicize the mystery. A mystery that publicizes itself is not Christian; it is not the mystery of God: it is a fake mystery! And this is what happened to Our Lady, when she received her Son: the mystery of her virginal motherhood is hidden. It is hidden her whole life! And she knew it. This shadow of God in our lives helps us to discover our own mystery: the mystery of our encounter with the Lord, our mystery of our life’s journey with the Lord.”

“Each of us,” affirmed the Pope, “knows how mysteriously the Lord works in our hearts, in our souls.” And what is “the cloud, the power, the way the Holy Spirit covers our mystery?”

“This cloud in us, in our lives is called silence: the silence is exactly the cloud that covers the mystery of our relationship with the Lord, of our holiness and of our sins. This mystery that we cannot explain. But when there is no silence in our lives, the mystery is lost, it goes away. Guarding the mystery with silence! That is the cloud, that is the power of God for us, that is the strength of the Holy Spirit.”

The Mother of Jesus was the perfect icon of silence. From the proclamation of her exceptional maternity at Calvary. The Pope said he thinks about “how many times she remained quiet and how many times she did not say that which she felt in order to guard the mystery of her relationship with her Son,” up until the most raw silence “at the foot of the cross”.

These statements of Pope Francis are borne out in Luke 2:19. In telling the story of the birth of Christ and all of the miraculous events surrounding this birth, Luke tells us, "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." 

When Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple to present Him to the Lord, the holy Simeon blessed the Child and made the great pronouncement that "my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel". However, Luke tells us that "The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him." Neither Mary nor Joseph understood the full import of Simeon's words, but they "marveled", pondering the words of Simeon in silence.

The only time we come even close to hearing Mary's commentary on the events of her Son's life of which she was an intimate part is when, after three days of not knowing where Jesus was, Mary found Him at the temple and said, to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." (Luke 2:48). Our Blessed Mother was experiencing her own Dark Night of the Soul, and she wanted to know why her Son caused her so much angst. His response, "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?" gave no light to Mary's understanding, as scripture tells us: "But they [Joseph and Mary] did not understand what he was saying to them." (Luke 2:41-50). But as the Pope tells us, Mary remained "the perfect icon of silence".

These few scriptures make it evident that our Blessed Mother did not always, and in fact, may have never had a complete understanding of the events in her and her Son's life right up to and including the events at Calvary.  Continuing on with the words of Pope Francis:

“The Gospel does not tell us anything: if she spoke a word or not… She was silent, but in her heart, how many things told the Lord! ‘You, that day, this and the other that we read, you had told me that he would be great, you had told me that you would have given him the throne of David, his forefather, that he would have reigned forever and now I see him there!’ Our Lady was human! And perhaps she even had the desire to say: ‘Lies! I was deceived!’ John Paul II would say this, speaking about Our Lady in that moment. But she, with her silence, hid the mystery that she did not understand and with this silence allowed for this mystery to grow and blossom in hope.”

Is it really possible that Mary, the sinless Mother of God, could have been tempted to accuse God of deceiving her?  Has Pope Francis, as so many accuse him, stepped over the line with this statement?

Father Frederick Faber wrote a wonderful book which I highly recommend entitled, "The Foot of the Cross: or, The Sorrows of Mary" which explores the tremendous suffering Our Lady endured during her lifetime.  As Father Faber writes, "When we think how we can best describe our Lady's dolours, it gradually dawns on us that they are in fact indescribable."

Father Faber goes on to state:  "Whatever cruelty was exercised upon the bodies of the martyrs was light, or rather it was nothing, compared to the cruelty of Mary's passion.  St. Bernardine of Siena says that so great was the dolour of the Blessed Virgin that if it was subdivided and parceled out among all creatures capable of suffering, they would perish instantly"  and "Even in respect of corporal anguish Mary exceeded the martyrs.  Her whole being was drenched with bitterness.  The swords in her soul reached to every nerve and fibre in he frame, and we can hardly doubt but that her sinless body with its exquisite perfections was delicately framed for suffering beyond all others, but that of her Son."

Father Faber himself makes a pretty controversial statement in the following:  "Jesus, the joy of the martyrs, is the executioner of His Mother.  Twice over to say the least, if not a third time also, did He crucify her, once by His Human Nature, once by His Divine, if indeed Body and Soul did not make two crucifixions from the Human Nature only.  No martyrdom was ever like to this."   Father Faber calls Jesus the executioner of His Mother.  Can you imagine the uproar that would result if Pope Francis said this?

Outside of Jesus Christ, Mary was the most perfect human who ever lived, the only sinless human.  But the fact remains that she was human.  It is only logical that because she was human, she was subject to temptation, just as Jesus Himself was subject to temptation:  "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin."  (Hebrews 4:15)  If Jesus was subject to temptation, why is it so controversial to believe that His Mother was also subject to temptation (yet without sin), especially in the incredible suffering she endured at Calvary along with her Son?

Those who take offense at Pope Francis' statement do so by saying that Mary had foreknowledge of the events at Calvary, so how could she possibly have been tempted to accuse God of lying?  (And please note, the Pope does not say or hint in any way that Mary gave into such a temptation.)  Jesus Christ, unlike His Mother, had complete and total understanding of the events in His Life, and knew even better than she did how vital Calvary was to the salvation of mankind.  Yet in the Garden of Gethsemane, He actually asked the Father to remove the cup of suffering.  And one of His last statements from the Cross was, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Did this mean that Jesus did not know what was going to happen when He was dying? That is absurd.

Pope Francis has given us a tremendous lesson that far too many are missing because of their judgmental attitude.  Pope Francis is telling us that our human side will always be subject to temptation and to rebellion.  The devil will always be whispering in our ears, just as He did with Our Lord and our Blessed Mother.  How do we not give in to these temptations?

Pope Francis tells us the best way to combat this is to remain in silence with God, just as Mary did. When Mary was confronted with events or circumstances she did not understand, she dealt with them in silence, taking them to God and letting Him sort it out.  "But she, with her silence, hid the mystery that she did not understand and with this silence allowed for this mystery to grow and blossom in hope." She "pondered in her heart."  Silence with God draws us close to him and reveals what we do not understand.  

Today, almost no one "ponders in their heart." They just go to the Internet and start accusing those with whom they disagree of being bad Catholics, heretics, etc., not hesitating even if that person they are accusing is the Vicar of Christ. They condemn anyone who disagrees with them, and as a result, they never come to any real understanding. How much better would it be if we took this in silence to the Lord and "allow the mystery to grow and blossom in hope"?

Yes, it is very possible that Mary was tempted when at the foot of the Cross.  If she was not actually tempted then, then certainly there was other times, but we know that she never once gave into any temptation.  Our Blessed Mother shows us the way to deal with the sometimes conflicting, confusing circumstances in our lives, when nothing seems to make sense and evil seems to be defeating good.  As Pope Francis explains, Mary "hid the mystery that she did not understand and with this silence allowed for this mystery to grow and blossom in hope."  

In order to hear God in our lives, in order to understand His Mystery, we must be quiet, we must withdraw into silence. Our Lord will never push His way into our lives. We, like our Blessed Mother, must always be saying "Yes" to Him, and we do this best when we are silent and allow the great mystery of God into our lives.

From Pope Francis:

“Silence is that which guards the mystery,” for which the mystery “of our relationship with God, of our journey, of our salvation cannot be… publicized,” the Pope repeated.

“May the Lord give all of us the grace to love the silence, to seek him and to have a heart that is guarded by the cloud of silence,” he said.

The Importance of Silence

Living in New York City, I have come to learn that there is very little that you can't find here, be it good or bad.  But one thing that is very hard to come by is silence.  This has to be one of the noisest places on earth.  But in our modern world, it seems as if people run from silence no matter where they are.  If we are by ourselves, we're talking on our cell phones, plugged into our ipods or ipads, which we can take everywhere.  At home the TV immediately comes on, or the radio or the computer.  We can't go into a store or restaurant without "music" playing (I put the word music in quotes because most of what we hear, IMHO, is no longer music but merely noise).  Waiting in a receptionist room and even in a lot of restaurants, we are usually bombarded with TV, blocking out even our own thoughts. 

I have written previously about the lack of silence in the Novus Ordo Mass and how destructive it is to prayer and communion with our Lord. 

A few weeks ago I posted the Pope's speech which he gave on January 24 and which was for World Communications Day on May 20.  That speech concerned the importance of silence in communication.  This past Wednesday, March 7, the the Holy Father, in his weekly general audience, again talked of the importance of silence, this time specifically on the importance of silence in our relationship with God.  It is a very short speech, but as is true any time the Pope speaks, it is packed with wisdom.

From the Vatican website:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In concluding this series of catecheses on the prayer of Jesus, I would like to speak of the importance of silence in our relationship with God. In Christ’s own life and prayer, and especially in his experience of the Cross, we see a constant interplay of word and silence. Jesus’ mortal silence on the Cross is his final word to the Father, his supreme prayer. To hear God’s word requires the cultivation of outward and inward silence, so that his voice can resound within our hearts and shape our lives. But Jesus teaches us that God also speaks to us, especially at times of difficulty, through his silence, which invites us to deeper faith and trust in his promises. Jesus is our great teacher of prayer; from his prayer we learn to speak with confidence to our heavenly Father as his beloved sons and daughters. In this filial dialogue we are also taught to recognize God’s many gifts and to obey his will, which gives meaning and direction to our lives.

The Pope is basically saying here that unless we can be silent, we will not hear God.  We have to turn off the TV, the internet, the radio, our ipods and ipads, even our own internal noise.  This is especially true in this holy time of Lent, as we go into the spiritual desert with our Lord.  This is one of the reasons why Eucharistic Adoration is so powerful.  We go before the Blessed Sacrament, exposed on the altar and turn off the entire world.  It is just you and the Lord.  And you let him speak to you in that still small voice described in I Kings 19.  Jesus will never push himself on you.  He is always there for you, but you have to turn off the world and listen quietly and intently, just as Elijah did.

9And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

10And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

11And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

May you find that still small voice and hear our Lord calling to you.

Silence in the Mass

Prayers said at foot of the altar
at beginning of Traditional Latin Mass

I recently did a post on a talk by Pope Benedict XVI on the importance of silence in communication.  I feel that silence during Mass is also very important, and I don't mean just from the people in the pews, but silence in the Mass itself.  Mass is the highest form of prayer for a Catholic because it is when we go to Calvary for the re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice to the Father.  Recognition of this fact demands reverential silence, and so it was until 1969 when the Novus Ordo Mass was first introduced.    Until the creation of the Novus Ordo Mass, the celebration of Mass included large amounts of silence.  Apart from the homily, amplification is never used during the Traditional Latin Mass.  Everything in the Traditional Mass lends itself to silent, prayerful contemplation.  It is never an intrusion into the prayers of the faithful, but an assistance in their prayers.  The priest prays with and in the same direction as the congregation.

In the TLM, the priest starts the Mass at the foot of the altar, asking forgiveness for his and the congregation's sins while the congregation kneels and prays silently with him.  In the Novus Ordo Mass, the priest comes out, stands at the side of the altar or behind it facing the congregation, and he prays at the people, almost always amplified, even if there is just a handful of people at the Mass.  The people stand, not kneel, facing the priest and instead of praying to God, they are basically answering the priest. 

Communal prayer and holding hands
during Novus Ordo Mass

It continues this way throughout the entire Novus Ordo Mass.  The priest is never quiet, not even during the Consecration. There is never a moment when the people can pray silently in personal communication with God.  Even when receiving Communion, instead of being able to kneel quietly in prayer and preparation at the altar rail while waiting for the priest to come to you, we now have to pick a line to stand in and then slowly walk up to the priest or Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist (who are no longer extraordinary but an expected part of the Mass) surrounded by the distraction of people walking all around us. Instead of being in silent, contemplative prayer, we have to wait to hear "Body of Christ" and then answer "Amen" to whomever (priest or EMHC) is giving us communion, again interrupting our internal communion with our Lord.  Most people receive in the hand, so after taking the Body and Blood of Jesus into their unpurified, unconsecrated hands, they walk away many times still holding the Host and consume it while walking, dropping the fragments of the consecrated host and, not even realizing it, desecrate our Lord, all hardly in an attitude of prayer.  The result of all of this is to lessen even more the reverence and awe due the Blessed Sacrament. 

Receiving Communion in the hand at
Novus Ordo Mass contrasted with
prayerful reception at TLM
using a paten to catch any fragments

For too many Catholics, receiving communion has become nothing more than a shared meal, not the reception of the Body and Blood of our Savior.  People don't even stop to consider whether they are in a state of grace and worthy to receive Communion.  They have basically the same attitude as Protestants do.  However, Protestants don't believe they are actually receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  And they're right - they are only receiving a symbol.  But with Catholics, we believe that we are literally receiving the same Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us on Calvary.  You sure wouldn't know this at the typical Novus Ordo Masses.  Everyone just marches up in line and, most giving no sign of reverence whatsoever such as a bow of the head or (Heaven forbid!) genuflecting or (gasp!) kneeling, they hold out their hands, barely aware of what is happening.  And it's hard to blame people since almost everything in the Novus Ordo Mass promotes that view.  In contrast, at the TLM, the people receive in a kneeling position on the tongue, all the while (hopefully) deep in prayer and communion with our Lord, and, if they wish, the people can stay kneeling at the altar rail for a moment or two in thanksgiving.   There is a reason why those at the TLM almost always walk to and from the communion rail with their hands folded in prayer, while you rarely see that at a Novus Ordo Mass.  The physical posture and gestures of the people reveal what is going on in their minds. 

The music in the Traditional Latin Mass is also never intrusive but instead, is always conducive to contemplation.  The singers and organist are up in the loft behind the congregation and basically out of view.  Music in the Novus Ordo Mass has come to include guitars, drums and other instrusive instruments. The choir is no longer unobtrusively in the choir loft but front and center, taking the focus off the Sacrifice of the Mass.  Again, this leaves no silence in which the congregation can worship. 

The lack of silence and opportunity for contemplation, meditation and personal prayer on the part of the people has directly led to lack of belief and proper respect for the Real Presence. Mass has become a matter of the priest entertaining the people, trying to find new and innovative ways to keep the attention of the congregation.  It has led to a tremendous falloff in weekly Mass attendance (down from 75% in the 1950's to about 20% in the US and single digits in Europe), and people complaining more and more that they are bored with the Mass.  Is it just coincidence, just an accident?  Is there really any wonder why people do not show reverence at Mass and feel free to talk before, after and even during Mass?  As the Holy Father told us, silence is an important part of communication with each other, and it is just as vital in our relationship with our Creator.  The corrections recently made to the Novus Ordo Mass are very welcome, but I think it still has a long way to go.

Silence Is Golden

Pope Benedict XVI, one of the most profound thinkers of our time,  gave a fantastic talk on Wednesday, January 24 on the importance of silence.  More specifically, the Holy Father talked about the importance of silence in communicating with other people, how important it is to even understand ourselves, and how vital it is in our relationship with our Creator.  I can only think of the political talk shows I see when people with opposing points of view don't converse.  They just argue at each other and try to get their points across, never considering for a moment what the other person is saying and the value of what the other person thinks.  They have already made up their minds and no one and nothing is going to change it, and they don't pause for a moment to reflect.  Too many of us live our lives that way.

Here is the text of that speech with a few of my comments.  So many problems in the world could be solved by applying this message, from family relations to global conflicts. 

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE 46th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization

[Sunday, 20 May 2012]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As we draw near to World Communications Day 2012, I would like to share with you some reflections concerning an aspect of the human process of communication which, despite its importance, is often overlooked and which, at the present time, it would seem especially necessary to recall. It concerns the relationship between silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance, to alternate and to be integrated with one another if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved. When word and silence become mutually exclusive, communication breaks down, either because it gives rise to confusion or because, on the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of coldness [as I mentioned, we see this all the time on TV, where people argue without listening to each other, only looking to make their own points and never bringing clarification to each other or those of us who are watching.  I've heard such "discussions" called shoot outs, which seems an appropriate term, because there is certainly no communication]; when they complement, however [meaning when silence and words are used together, never one without the other], communication acquires value and meaning.