20 April 2017
NOISE AND SILENCE
We are all imprinted with the memories from our childhood and teenage years. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970’s, I was interested in the culture of those decades. There was one incident which has stayed with me down the years. At one rock concert given by someone like the Who, they did the typical thing which was to play the sound system at full volume. It was very loud and brash as you might expect. After the concert the roadies were dismantling the speaker cabinets and found that inside one unit a young lad had fallen asleep. It seems very ironic that despite being over loud and brash and could be heard from miles away, here one boy slept soundly.
The older we get the more we feel it is not the noisy occasions that can fill our hearts. Just the opposite. We feel that the quiet events in the background are more important than the noisy ones. Noise excites but it does not penetrate the heart. Great things have their roots in the silent hours.
One comment is often heard to describe the atmosphere around the Shrine and that is peaceful. When people come into the Shrine they become very quiet. The Shrine is quiet and simple. Silence embraces us here and yet we can sense that something important for lives is taking place. The silent hour can be the most important hour of our lives. We think of our first Holy Communion, or the moment when a couple exchange their rings in a marriage, people can sense in the time spent here in the Shrine that ‘here’ is something special.
We have just come through the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter. You can see on the altar here this afternoon, we have a rose. The rose is a symbol of love. Love means we give our hearts to one-another. The rose is red and red is the colour of our sacrifices which we offer up to God and our Blessed Mother here in the Shrine.
A legend is told that in former times only white roses existed. When our Lord was hanging on the cross of Golgotha and our Blessed Mother was standing at the cross, white roses were blooming at the foot of the cross. Some drops of the precious blood of our Saviour feel on the roses turning them blood red. Since that time there are red roses. The red rose is a symbol of love. Our Lord shed his blood out of love. The presence of the rose symbolizes an exchange of heart and an exchange of love. v
Sshoenstatt is built on the covenant of love and it takes us on a journey, where we hear the words ‘father’ and ‘mother’. The words God likes to hear best from the mouths of his Children is the little word ‘yes’ Father, ‘yes’ mother. What does the little word yes mean on the lips of our heavenly Father and Mother. It is a personal yes to my name and surname. She knows me very well, I am not a number to her. I think about my name. , let us say it is Louise. Here I am this afternoon a simple child like many others, not rich, not outstanding, no one perhaps notices that I am here. It is different with Our Blessed Mother who says ‘Yes’ to me specially. She takes mew as I am.
Think of how many people are asking and begging to be loved, to have a home in a beloved person. However there is no place like ours, we have a home a nest in the heart of the dear Blessed Mother. What did it cost our Blessed Lady to become a mother? What do I mean when I say it cost the Blessed Mother much? What was the most precious possession she had? Like Abraham in the Old Testament who was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, she was willing to allow him to be sacrificed. The Father loves us so much that he gave his Son for us. We can say the same for Mary.
