Silence of Jesus
Jesus lived in this world as a man for thirty three years.
But He utilized only three years for preaching His Gospel.
He was with His mother for thirty years.
During all these years Jesus was silent to the public.
From this silence we learn as much as we learn from His preaching.
St. Luke describes Jesus’ life from His 12th year until His starting His public life just in just two verses.
“And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man. ( Luke.2:51,52)
But these verses contain a message that lays the foundation for the whole structure of messages Jesus conveys us all His public life.
His silence speaks as powerfully as His words.
Let us consider the silent message.
He was obedient to His mother and foster father.
His mother kept her temple experience in her heart.
Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.
The second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Creator of the whole universe, whom the whole creation must obey, is obedient to two human beings, Mary and Joseph.
A preacher must first practise what he preaches.
Jesus who preached to His followers that they must obey the commandments of God and carry out His will, Himself did it first by His obedience.
He obeyed his mother and His foster father.
His whole life was an act of obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father.
His thirty years of silence was a preparation for His three years of preaching.
We must learn from Jesus and put into practice what we have learned.
We must obey the commandments of God and the precepts of the Church.
Obedience is not only the first step but also every step in the ladder of spiritual life, for we must be obedient throughout our spiritual life.
The moment obedience vanishes pride steps in and makes us equal to Satan.
“His mother kept all these things in her heart.”
‘These things’ refer to Our Lady’s experience in the temple when Jesus was 12 years old.
49 “But he asked them,What reason had you to search for me? Could you not tell that I must needs be in the place which belongs to my Father?[7] 50 These words which he spoke to them were beyond their understanding;”
Though the words of Jesus were beyond her understanding, she kept them in her heart, meditating on them.
Our Lady is a very good example for us.
There are plenty of things in the Bible that are beyond our understanding.
It is no wonder that supernatural things are beyond our natural understanding.
God Himself is beyond our natural understanding.
It is our supernatural virtue of ‘Faith’ that enables us to believe in God.
But we must keep the teachings of the Bible in our heart with full belief in God.
We will understand them one day, when we see God face to face in Heaven.
‘Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature’.
Jesus is fully God and fully man.
The above words refer to His human nature.
As God He is perfect and He cannot have growth; He cannot increase in His attributes.
But as man He had growth.
He was only a small child when He was born.
Then He grew into a boy and then man.
We too must grow in wisdom together with our stature.
Without growth in wisdom, mere physical growth is of no use spiritually.
The silence of Jesus teaches us this very important lesson.
He increased in favour of man also.
Jesus was a carpenter and He did His duty as such perfectly well.
His customers were fully satisfied with His work.
The carpenter of Nazareth had a very good name in his village.
Jesus as a carpenter teaches us a very good lesson, though silently.
We must be truthful to our profession.
Though the Gospel writers are silent about major portion of Jesus life, the silence itself teaches us a very good lesson:
‘We must be obedient;
we must keep the words of Jesus in our heart all our life
and
we must grow in wisdom with our stature.’
One more lesson which many of us forget.
Silent meditation is more effective than loud words.
Lourdu Selvam.
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