If you were ever the new kid on the block, in the
classroom, on the team, and remember how you just wanted to fit in... Or if you
ever loved from afar and dreamed of being with a person who seemed too good,
too beyond you and your clumsy efforts, and can remember how you just wanted to be close and
somehow you just did not know how to do it... Or if ever you were all alone, far
from home and had to eat in a restaurant by yourself at a teeny table and
longed for family, someone familiar, a friend, the warmth of home and table, then perhaps you get a glimpse of what
God is trying to do in the Incarnation. It as if for ages God had been trying to
get closer, longing for intimacy with each of us, longing to be ordinary
and hidden in our midst. Finally in Christ Jesus, God's desire for intimacy with humankind takes flesh. In Jesus God gives Everything, indeed His very Self.
God always makes the first move toward us in love. “Love consists in this, not
that we have loved God, but that God has loved us and sent us his Son.” God
so loves us, that He is always, constantly, very gently trying to get our
attention. Monastic silence is only possible if we believe that we are so deeply loved and sought after by God. We need to feel safe to be silent. And any one who
has been in love knows that there are times in a loving relationship when words
are unnecessary or would even interrupt. Love makes silence possible,
appropriate, meaningful, and secure. Silence depends on love and leads to love.
