‘THE CONSCIOUS REST’

WHY AM I AFRAID OF SILENCE? PART II: The Nature of Silence (b) The Conscious Rest

We continue to look at the inner life of silence. From the preceding write-ups, we are convinced that silence is an act. As the Psychologist postulated, it can be learned or unlearned. If silence belongs to the realm of action, it then means it is self-generated and involves an active mind.  It is not mere passivity. This is because a silent man is attentive, or rather, he projects his mind to gather and process information at the same time. He picks up and retains data more efficiently.

 

This twofold dimensional reflective psychological projection consumes energy. Simply put: silence can be energy sapping and can generate tension. So one not schooled in it can easily become uncomfortable when confronted by silence; he gets wearied out by it. In the article below (http://nwachinwe.blogspot.com/2015/05/why-am-i-afraid-of-silence-ii-silence.html), it was discovered that frequent exposure to ‘background noise’ leads to fear of silence.

 

On the other hand, silence can be healthy and energy-giving. It can be a source of replenishing lost strength and healing wounds. As an act that goes in the two directions—outwards and inwards—it bounces back on us to restore lost confidence. Since silence is first and foremost and internal job, it recreates the inner self. In silence we do not merely give ourselves out, rather we receive more than we give out i.e. less information is given out, more is accumulated. Though silence is a conscious act, it inclines one to the direction of inactivity. Ironically, we can say that in silence the mind is consciously at rest.  ‘’Conscious rest’’ is another name I give to silence. Thus, we are refreshed and internally more secure when we embrace silence. Yes, this can be obvious if we consider that the gathering and assimilation of more data brings confidence and tranquillity to the silent mind.

From the foregoing, it is obvious that I am afraid of silence when it confronts me. And it confronts me when I do not practice it.  Therefore, the key to overcoming the fear of silence is to keep learning it or practicing it. The extent of the uneasiness we experience when confronted by silence goes a long way to show how poor a student are we at the school of silence.

Fr. Jude C. Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Mother of Perpetual Help Shrine,

Ugwogo-Nike, Enugu, Nigeria.

WHY AM I AFRAID OF SILENCE? II: Silence as Behaviour

After some years of break, I am making a renewed effort to continue the reflection I published in 2009 titled, WHY AM I AFRAID OF SILENCE? Click here for the first part, titled ‘Silence Confronts’ http://nwachinwe.blogspot.com/2009/12/why-am-i-afraid-of-silence.html A guest writer has spurred me on to continue the reflection by initiating part 2, which attempts to answer the question: ‘What kind of silence am I afraid of?’ To answer this question, we must look at the nature of silence. Our guest writer, as a Psychologist, views silence from the dimension of human actions or behaviour. Subsequently, we shall draw other impacts of silence, including spirituality and relationship.

 Excerpts:

                                                  SILENCE AS BEHAVIOUR

What do we understand by silence?

Silence is said to mean the absence of intentional sounds. By intentional sounds we mean things we turn on, like TVs. I-pods, words we speak, and the ones we hear, music, game sounds, etc. By this definition of silence, we can say that silence is a purposeful quietness, and also an action.

Fear of silence is also said to be a learnt behaviour. This theory can be supported with a research conducted by Drs Michael Bittman and Mark Sipthorp with 580 undergraduate students.[1] This research was undertaken over six years, and the result shows that constant accessibility and exposure to background media leads to fear of silence. Since fear of silence of silence is a learnt behaviour, it can also be unlearned by confronting the experience of silence.
                 
SILENCE AS AN ACTION
Silence implies consent. This is a concept in "Social Interaction" which means that people tend to assume silence to an action as tacit approval of that action. For instance, when there is an issue and you are being silent, others may interpret that as consent. Silence on the other hand can mean objecting. Example, if somebody calls you an idiot and you remain silent, it can mean that the person is too much of an idiot to deserve a response.

Summarily, silence is an action which implies consent and also an objection, depending on the purpose it is being used.
 
Written by:
Adachukwu Umeh, B.Sc. Psy
amikangel4real@yahoo.com

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[1]Hofmann, G. (2013). Our Fear of Silence.Psych Central.Retrieved on April  23, 2015 from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/01/16/our-fear-of-ilence.

Silence and Joy!

In this reflection I would like to highlight two aspects of Easter which might seem contradictory, but they are aspects of our faith which co-exist in every authentic Christian.

The first is SILENCE
On Holy Thursday evening we ended our celebration in Silence: the whole Church fell silent at the stripping of the altar, at the watching and waiting with Jesus, at the beginning of his Passion. The bells were silenced, the lights were dimmed, a physical silence encouraged us to go deeper into an interior silence in the face of the mystery of a suffering God.

The Stations of the Cross on Friday morning led us through the physical and emotional pain of Jesus as condemned, Jesus as faltering on his Way of the Cross, till we reached the Solemn Celebration of his death in the afternoon –when Jesus experienced the silence of the Father. Our Liturgy began and ended in solemn silence.

The silence of the tomb continued all day Saturday, silence and stillness over all the earth as the body of Jesus lay in the tomb. In the silence of Holy Saturday we touch on inner silence of God, the silence of the descent into the realm of the dead, the silence of waiting. Then sometime in the deep silence of the night Jesus is raised from the dead: the Resurrection happens in silence. It is not seen by anyone, it is not heard by anyone, it is a miracle heralding a completely new kind of existence, for which we have no adequate language, no adequate symbols, no adequate explanation. It transforms our stuttering silence into the silence which is God.

The silence of the Resurrection means that silence can be a key to the greatest and most overwhelming mystery there is: that Jesus did not remain dead but broke through to Resurrection life, and infinitely significant for us, that we too can share his Risen life, already.


The second aspect is JOY
An irrepressible aspect of the Resurrection is JOY: the joy of overcoming death, the joy of the new kind of existence, the joy of God. The joy of the Resurrection permeates all Christian existence:

We encounter Christian joy already in the Annunciation :Rejoice. It is echoes in Mary’s song of Joy “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”.

Jesus remarked that he taught the things of God “so that my joy may be in you”.

The disciples “rejoiced” at the sight of the Risen Christ and the Acts of the Apostles tell us that wherever the disciples went “there was great joy” not withstanding the fierce persecutions.

The Joy of the Resurrection is the Joy of New Birth: that we are changed, that change for the better is always possible. Pope Francis talks about “the great stream of JOY” into which we are plunged, a stream of joy which can purify us, which can wash away old way of living and doing things.

Easter joy is revolutionary: it gives hope a permanent and prominent role in everyday life. And without hope life would become meaningless and unbearable : “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain”

I suggest that there is a golden thread connecting Silence and Joy: it is the hidden life of the Spirit in us. “The life you have is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). This means that we can always relate to God through silence, it means that nothing –not even death- can quench the profound joy of knowing and sharing the New Life of the Risen Christ.

Easter Reflection 2015

From the Provincial Superior

Redempotrists of South Africa.

Sent in by, Fr Andrew Ogbu, C.Ss.R http://andikincssr.blogspot.com/ 

Value of Life

Burial traditions vary from culture to culture. Just as different religions and sects attach varying rites to burial, it is quit uncommon to see a group of people without a burial tradition. Even where some people claim to be atheists, they still attach certain rituals to burials. Nevertheless, some burial rites can be more elaborate and expensive, while others are simple and less expensive. Why are cultures not indifferent to burial, such that the dead can be discarded without any formal or socially accepted formula?

Our gathering here this afternoon from different parts of the country, in a cultural and grand style, is a reflection of how we value life. The value which a culture places on life is clearly  reflected in their burial ceremonies. The Igbos of Nigeria value human life so much. That is why a lot of energy, time and importance is put into their burial rites. In other words, the burial rites of Ndi Igbo can be said to be a ‘Celebration of Life’.

Hence, during the burial rites of men and women whom the society considers to be advanced in age, you would see men and women who are either family members,  friends of the deceased or close relations in matching attires, various cultural troupes would be in attendance, firing of cannons, use of sirens and of course, cooking of different delicacies and the serving of assorted drinks. These gestures are ways of saying: ‘if we had our way, we would have made it different because we love to live'. Thus, our gathering here today for the burial of our Daughter, Sister, Mother and Grandmother; Madam Patricia Chinakwaeze, is equally a way of saying, if it were within our power, we won’t have let our her go.

Since it is not within our power, in a way, we have been summoned here by a force beyond our power—the power of death! Since we are helpless, at the strike of death we feel the pain; tears roll. The tears too join in expressing our helplessness and how we wish it were different.

Nevertheless, we are here today as Christians. This makes a lot of difference. As Christians, our value for life is located in Jesus Christ. It is from Him that we draw meaning for life and death. Thus, our burial rite, marked with this Eucharistic celebration, has become an expression of the value for the life we share in Jesus Christ.

As Christians then, we will cry because we miss our mother but we will not despair; no one is going to jump into the grave! This is because in Jesus we have come to know that our life is a pilgrimage, and death is just the beginning of life. Thus, our burial rite has become an act of sowing her like a mustard seed to germinate through the Resurrection of Christ into eternity, where she will become a mighty tree of blessing. In Jesus we come to realize that we are not just left helpless under the destroying power of death, but rather we are under grace from Jesus’ triumph over death on the Cross. Hence every Christian burial is a proclamation of Jesus’s victory over death, which gives us hope.

Without Christ Jesus, our natural value for life cannot sustain us. We would despair when summoned by the force of death, and this in turn would diminish our value for life. That is why societies that reject Christ will always be permeated by the culture of death and low respect for human life.

We pray at this Mass that God will grant Madam Patricia Chinakweze a share in His Kingdom.

 

Fr Jude C. Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

Holy Mass Celebrated at Late Madam Patricia Chinakweze compound

Eziagu Enugu, Nigeria
6th February, 2015.

 

SPIRITUAL GROWTH

I want to share with you the fruit of a discussion I had with a friend about spiritual growth last December. Many of us experience, at one time or the other, a deeper yearning for goodness, truth, beauty—God and His righteousness (cf. Mt 6:33). At some point, we might be wondering if we are making any progress at all or retarding on the journey. The discussion I had with my friend was an attempt to answer one question: What does it mean to grow spiritually?

It means to grow in the personal realization of how much one is loved by God. This deepened awareness of God’s love as experienced by the believer constitutes spiritual growth. This is based on the fact that it is God who loved us first, and our love for God, therefore, is a response (1 Jn 4:7-12). It implies then that we can only respond to the extent that we are aware of God’s love for us. This response to God’s love is a pilgrimage of faith! Furthermore, since God’s love is Incarnate, it implies that our daily experiences can now testify to God’s love. Even our negative experiences (sin) can equally remind us of how we have distanced ourselves from God’s love, for where sin increased, grace increased the greater (Rm 5:20).

Though the realization of God’s love, which leads to spiritual growth, is personal, it nonetheless, draws from and leads back to communion. Since our spiritual growth is a function of our realization of how much we are loved personally by God, it is obvious that any activity that does not deepen this realization will have little or no impact on us spiritually, no matter how strenuous such activity might be.

IMPLICATIONS

If our spiritual life can be summed up as a response to God’s love, the following implications are inherent.

1.       HUMILITY: The realization of God’s gracious love for the believer humbles him. Humility is the bedrock of the Spiritual life. Therefore, the practice of acts of humility accelerates spiritual growth.

2.       HISTORY: Through the Incarnation the love of God has come to share in our history. And a believer who experiences and responds to God’s love will begin to understand how it has shaped his life. In other words, a personal realization of God’s love implicitly includes a realization of the history of this love in one’s life. By connecting this awareness of God’s love to one’s history, the deepened realization translates into a lived experience! There is history of experience. Since the love is incarnate, our realization of this love follows the pattern of our lived experiences and accumulates a residue of the history of God’s love-journey with the individual. Therefore, being conscious of one’s journey with God enhances spiritual growth.

3.       Time: Though the realization of God’s love as expressed in spiritual activities takes cognizance of the past, with an eye into the future, it can only be actualized in the present (cf. 2Cor 6:2). We live ‘now’ in the presence of God. Therefore, a believer can only progress spiritually if he realizes in his present experience that God loves him, and allows this realization to become intricate part of his present experience.

Mary, Mother of love, is a sure way to deepen our response to God’s love for us. Devotion to Mary keeps on the steady path to spiritual growth.

 Fr Jude Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

5th February, 2015

‘‘Henceforth all Generations shall call me blessed’' (Lk 1:48)

The Virgin Mary made this all-time declaration when she visited her cousin, Elizabeth. This statement serves as an acknowledgment of the great things the Almighty has done for her as the Mother of God despite her lowliness. It is equally an expression of joy and a reason for her joy that, ‘‘henceforth all generations shall call me blessed’’

Gathered here to mark the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, we re-echo and partake in that joy; the joy we have in God our Saviour who looks on our weakness and humiliation (cf. Lk 1:47). God, in His almightiness, considers the weak and lowly and lifts the on high. ‘‘He humbles the proud and raises the lowly’’ (Lk 1:52). Thus, the Solemnity of Assumption announces that Mary, the humble handmaid of the Lord, has been raised on high, assumed into heavenly glory. St Alphonsus Maria De Liguori, Founder of the Redemptorist Congregation, said, ‘‘Jesus did not wish to have the body of Mary corrupted after death, since it would have redounded to His own dishonour to have her Virginal flesh, from which He Himself had assumed flesh, reduced to dust’’(The Glories of Mary, Part II, d. 1).

The dogma of Assumption was declared on November 1, 1950 by Pope Pius XII in the Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus: By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory (No.44). This dogma asserts that Mary is wholly in God, in the totality of her existence, i.e. body and soul. Being in God, she is alive to all peoples and all generations as Mother of all believers. Thus, in Mary Assumed into Heaven, the Church’s belief in the Resurrection of the body is strengthened and enlivened. The pilgrim Church gazes on Mary with radiant joy, resounding her blessedness in all generations, since Mary has become a model for the Church. Our celebration of Assumption becomes our anticipation of the Resurrection (cf. CCC 966-967).

The Holy Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption of Mary with great solemnity. In this way, the Church stands out as the living fulfilment of Mary’s prophecy that all generations will call her blessed. We, as individual pilgrims in the Church, express our joy as we share in the fulfilment of that prophecy. Thus, when Mary said to Elizabeth, ‘‘Henceforth all generations shall call me blessed’’, she understood that the great things the Almighty has done for her lowly handmaid would make her alive and present to all generations. In other words, God’s great works in Mary can never be relegated to the past. Her motherhood extends to all generations.

Gathered here before the Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, we are besieged by many problems. But we are not blinded by these from seeing God’s goodness and great works in our lives. So as we join all generations to call Mary Blessed, we partake and re-echo her joy, while at the same join our voices with hers to announce that the Almighty has done great things for us.

Fr. Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R

National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help,

Ugwogo-Nike, Enugu. Nigeria.

Written for Enugu Diocesan Pilgrimage/Rosary Carnival Brochure.

August 16, 2014.

ACCEPT THE WORD

                                                                         REFLECTION FOR SATURDAY 17th Week in Ordinary Time  

                                                                                                                                            (Jer 26:11-16,24. Mt 14:1-12)

Jeremiah prophesied against the Temple and the City. His voice unsettled the people’s temporary comfort in evil.  Thus, they threatened to kill him. But Jeremiah quickly reminded them that the messaged he delivered came from God. So killing him would not silence the voice because it’s actually God’s word that he proclaimed. And God’s word is a living word that lives beyond the messenger. In other words, whether they let him go or not, God’s word for them must be fulfilled. And if they kill him, they would have only succeeded in increasing their crimes, which implies more punishment. He urged them to accept the message irrespective of him.

Jeremiah’s readiness to die for God’s word becomes a veritable platform that enabled the people to receive the message for what it is, God’s word and not some human thinking (cf 1Th 2:13). Interestingly, it is within this same platform that the messenger becomes effective and successful. In other words, a preacher who removes martyrdom from his catalogue of witnessing for the Word, will most likely trade off the word to save his life. And his list of compromising will begin to increase.

From Jeremiah’s experience in the first reading, it becomes easier for us to understand why Herod and his illegal sweet heart, Herodias, rejected the message of John the Baptist. Deafened by political and royal exuberance, they failed to recognize John’s warning as coming from God. Instead of allowing God’s word to arrest him, Herod arrested John and imprisoned him. ‘‘But God’s message cannot be chained up’’ (2 Tim 2:9). Hence, he was perturbed at the voice of John the Baptist sounding from the prison and from the grave!

Our duty is to recognize and accept God’s word for what it is. This is a life-long project. But it must be fulfilled at every moment and every situation of our lives. We must therefore pray for the grace to fulfil this responsibility.

 

Fr Jude Chinwe Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
National Shrine of Our Mother Perpetual Help,
Ugwogo-Nike, Enugu, Nigeria.
Saturday, 2^nd August, 2014.