The liturgy of the Church gives room for silence. We see this in the brief pauses before prayers, the prolonged pause after the homily and Holy Communion, etc. These moments of silence indicate that in the Mass, we offer, not just external gestures or acts, but our whole selves; our hidden selves. Silence is important in the Liturgy.
It gives room for the internalization
of the mysteries we celebrate, or rather, the personalization of the
objective sacrifice of the Body of Christ, the Church. If silence is
destroyed, the celebration becomes more external than internal, and may
be reduced to a ‘’show’’. The moments of silence in the Liturgy give
deeper meaning to our singing and clapping.In fact, it is as if all the moments of ‘’noise’’ are directed towards the period of silence and awaits it. Silence shines out in the liturgy as the culminating point of our external gestures. In other words, without this heightening point, the external gestures appear to be open ended. And when this occurs, in-depth and lasting fulfillment from these external gestures may not be felt.
As an act, silence enables us to open our inner life to the spiritual reality we celebrate. As the liturgy is the action of Christ through the Church, we must learn to give way to Christ to lead us and draw us to a deeper communion. We must not forget that it is around His table that we gather; we must not forget that the priest only stands in persona Christi, i.e. it is Jesus who offers Himself but through the action of the Church. These deep mysteries are loudly expressed in the liturgy when we pause before prayers and observe moments of silence. Here silence speaks to us about the Unseen, and deepens us into the mystery we celebrate.
Links to previous articles in the series 'Why am I afraid of Silence?'
Part I: Silence Confronts http://nwachinwe.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-am-i-afraid-of-silence.html
part II: The Nature of Silence (a): Silence as Behaviour http://nwachinwe.blogspot.com/2015/05/why-am-i-afraid-of-silence-ii-silence.html
(b): 'The Conscious Rest' http://nwachinwe.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-conscious-rest.html
(c) Silence and Spirituality http://nwachinwe.blogspot.com/2015/05/silence-and-spirituality.html
Fr Jude Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help,
Ugwogo-Nike, Enugu, Nigeria.
Feast of Pentecost, May 24, 2015
