The Power of Story - The Need for Silence
A mother once asked Albert Einstein how her son could become as smart as he was. Einstein replied, “read him fairytales.” “What else should I do” she asked, “read him more fairytales.” Einstein once said “logic will get you from point A to point B, imagination will take you everywhere.”
In a lot of ways we have lost the power of the story. Immediately we want to know if something is true or not. We get obsessed with data, facts and what we think is real and concrete. In religious and spiritual realms we settle for beliefs and creeds rather than faith. It is ease to say “I believe” quite something else to free fall head long into what we say we believe. Imagination helps us take that step, the step that can lead us to far more than we can possibly imagine or believe.
Jesus gave us no creeds. Jesus told stories, stories that would, if we use our imaginations, lead us to new and fuller life. Jesus told stores about daily life. The story of the sower, the story of flowers in the fields, the woman who lost a coin and a person born blind. These and all the other stories Jesus tells can, if we use our imaginations, draw us ever deeper into the ordinary things and events we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Jesus knew long before the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins “that all of creation is charged with the grandure of God.”
A few years ago my dad and I drove the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks Alaska. I took many beautiful photographs but when I got home I was very disappointed with all of them. None of them captured what I really saw; they all fell short of the insane beauty of that trip. People who have seen them like them but I knew their shortcomings. This is true of our words and iyr language especially when we try to tell someone of our spiritual experiences. Our words, our symbols are only shadows of what they are trying to convey.
In recent years my dad has told me stories of his landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Interesting stories but only my imagination can lead me into the drama, horror, and full fury of what he was experiencing. His words are only shadows. My words, our words are only shadows of what we are trying to convey to each other. This is why silence is so important for in the silence is the fullness of truth.
God’s first Word was silence and out of that holy silence all was created in the imagination of God. Only in awe-struck silence and we appreciate God’s truth all around us; only in such silence can we hold tenderly the truth of our friends, relatives, partners and our community of Faith. “When you pray, go to your room and shut the door.” We need to do this often alone and with others to discover God’s truth and love that abides deep within each of us.
Let our first word, be Holy Silence.
Fr. Michael Evernden, CSP
In a lot of ways we have lost the power of the story. Immediately we want to know if something is true or not. We get obsessed with data, facts and what we think is real and concrete. In religious and spiritual realms we settle for beliefs and creeds rather than faith. It is ease to say “I believe” quite something else to free fall head long into what we say we believe. Imagination helps us take that step, the step that can lead us to far more than we can possibly imagine or believe.
Jesus gave us no creeds. Jesus told stories, stories that would, if we use our imaginations, lead us to new and fuller life. Jesus told stores about daily life. The story of the sower, the story of flowers in the fields, the woman who lost a coin and a person born blind. These and all the other stories Jesus tells can, if we use our imaginations, draw us ever deeper into the ordinary things and events we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. Jesus knew long before the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins “that all of creation is charged with the grandure of God.”
A few years ago my dad and I drove the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks Alaska. I took many beautiful photographs but when I got home I was very disappointed with all of them. None of them captured what I really saw; they all fell short of the insane beauty of that trip. People who have seen them like them but I knew their shortcomings. This is true of our words and iyr language especially when we try to tell someone of our spiritual experiences. Our words, our symbols are only shadows of what they are trying to convey.
In recent years my dad has told me stories of his landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Interesting stories but only my imagination can lead me into the drama, horror, and full fury of what he was experiencing. His words are only shadows. My words, our words are only shadows of what we are trying to convey to each other. This is why silence is so important for in the silence is the fullness of truth.
God’s first Word was silence and out of that holy silence all was created in the imagination of God. Only in awe-struck silence and we appreciate God’s truth all around us; only in such silence can we hold tenderly the truth of our friends, relatives, partners and our community of Faith. “When you pray, go to your room and shut the door.” We need to do this often alone and with others to discover God’s truth and love that abides deep within each of us.
Let our first word, be Holy Silence.
Fr. Michael Evernden, CSP
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