How often, when we pray, we seem to be met with a deafening silence. We can even wonder why we bothered! The Lord is not answering us in any words that we can hear. We know how little we must seem to Him, tinier than an ant we accidentally squashed with a heedless shoe.
But - here is where Faith grabs us by our hand, gazes into our faces, and reminds us: "The Lord cares for you. He hears you!"
Pope Francis reminds us,
““The Lord listens”: sometimes in prayer it is enough to know this. Problems are not always solved. Those who pray are not deluded: they know that many questions of life down here remain unresolved, with no way out; suffering will accompany us and, after one battle, others will await us. But if we are listened to, everything becomes more bearable.”
The Lord may not communicate with us in audible words, but there will always be signs in our lives that let us know that God is listening.
First, we can ascertain and believe that God created each of us because God wanted to! God created human beings to God's own amazing spiritual specifications, which are even more awe-inspiring than Lockheed's strategic reconnaissance aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird. The iconic SR-71 Blackbird spy plane was known for years for being the official record holder for the fastest jet-powered, piloted aircraft of all time. So far, there has actually been only one legitimate, jet-powered, piloted aircraft that was faster than the SR-71, the A-12 Oxcart. Just look at its specs:
The J-58 engine is the only engine designed to run in continuous afterburner. It gets so hot that the engine becomes translucent due to the heat!
- The markings on the Blackbird are chalk, not paint! Paint would burn off due to skin heating.
- The cockpit windows are made of Pyrex. Oven glass. The windscreen in front of the pilot heats to 400 degrees while in flight.
- There isn’t a single piece of aluminum anywhere in the airframe or in any location that could be exposed to the heat of Mach 3 flight. Aluminum melts due to the friction and heat generated at this speed.
- The Blackbird leaks like a sieve on the ground and the airframe expands several inches while in flight due to aerodynamic heating and seals the fuel tanks. No suitable sealant was ever found that could seal the fuel tanks given the heat of flight so they simply didn’t bother and decided a little leaked fuel in flight and pans on the ground were cheaper and easier to deal with.
- The JP-7 fuel used by the Blackbird has such a high flashpoint a lighted match can be thrown into a pan of it and it will go out! Hence why they didn’t bother with trying to seal the fuel tanks on the ground. The fuel requires special effort to get it to ignite. Normal fire is not enough.
- Each spacesuit worn by each crewman is custom-fitted. And so comfortable combined with a Lazy Boy that crews often fell asleep in them during preflight.
- The chined shaped and inward facing fins on the Blackbird are both for aerodynamics and stealth. The SR-71 was the first aircraft where some measures were taken to reduce its radar cross-section.
- The SR-71 was limited to Mach 3.2 due to engine and inlet air temperature limits. The airframe was apparently capable of going much faster.
- The Blackbird is the only aircraft in the inventory that never suffered from significant airframe fatigue problems. The heating/cooling cycles actually strengthened the airframe and all of the survivors had plenty of life left in them with no cracking observed. It is unknown how many hours each SR-71 would have been capable of achieving.
- The SR-71 used stellar inertial navigation since it flew high enough it could see the stars! Only missiles and spacecraft used similar systems.
- The SR-71 never suffered any weather at cruise altitude. There was none as it was above most of the atmosphere. (written by Matt Pickering in June, 2016, for Quora Digest.)
Look at how God designed US! The psalmist tells us that we have been created to be "little less than the gods" with an intelligence that exceeds that of every other creature on earth, an intelligence that equips us to be caretakers of the entire planet. Our souls can get so "hot" Immersed in the fast-moving, incredible pressures of our daily lives that we feel as if we're going to melt or explode - but the Holy Spirit is guarding us so well, surrounding us so perfectly, that our spiritual frames can handle anything and everything. In fact, God has created our souls so that the healing and cooling cycles of our lives actually strengthen our souls so that they don't crack into pieces from soul fatigue. Each one of us is so fast that we can out-fly every temptation jetting after us. Sometimes we can even fly high enough and fast enough on the fuel of peace, love, joy, and awe that it seems we reach the stars.
Second, while we may not hear any specific words from God as we pray, we can always go to God's Specific Word for all of us, God's Son Jesus and the Words of Scripture. Jesus specifically tells us that God loves and cares for each of us. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says to His followers:
"Do not fear those who deprive the body of life but cannot destroy the soul.... Are not two sparrows sold for next to nothing? Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent. As for you, every hair on your head has been counted; so do not be afraid of anything. You are worth more than an entire flock of sparrows. Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before my Father in Heaven." (Matthew 10: verses 28 - 32.)
The most unique part of our Heavenly specifications is that our souls are immortal, designed for eternity. And, while we live on earth, God knows and loves each one of us so intimately that nothing happens to us that God is not aware of, nothing happens to us that God cannot use to bring goodness into our lives. Of course, Jesus, our Good Shepherd, also tells us that we should not be afraid - not even of people or circumstances that can bring about our body's death. We should only be afraid of those who threaten the health and integrity of our souls. Those are the people to avoid.
Third, when all we hear during our prayers is silence, maybe we need to rethink the value of silence itself. In this fast-moving, loud, frenetic world, silence is seen as a liability, an empty space just waiting to be filled up by something, anything. Yet in meditation, or Centering Prayer, silence is something we seek. We sit quietly, attentively, trying to peacefully let go of our thoughts and emotions and mental images to enter stripped of them into the Presence of God. We try to be still so that we can know, at an ever-deepening level, the wonder and mystery of the Presence of God.
As Cynthia Bourgeault says, "Silence is not absence, but presence. It is a “something,” not a nothing. It has substantiality, heft, force. You can lean into it, and it leans back. It meets you; it holds you up."
Fr. Thomas Keating was a great teacher about Centering Prayer. Cynthia Bourgeault, one of his students, tells us
"Gradually, as we progress in Centering Prayer—or in any meditation practice, for that matter—we begin to reorient. Centering Prayer’s instructions to let go of all thoughts, regardless of content, directs us back to the silence itself, and we gradually learn the shape of the new terrain. As we stop grabbing for content, we gradually discover that silence does indeed have depth, presence, shape, even sound. As we mature in Centering Prayer, the perception that the emptiness is in fact the presence becomes more and more palpable. Thomas Keating encourages us that this “sound of silence” keeps right on growing. By his own later stage in the journey, it has become “thunderous.”
"In fact—says Thomas—this 'thunderous' silence is actually the most intense, concentrated 'dosage'of divine presence we can bear face-to-face. In a paradoxical way, the dance of creation, beautiful and enchanting as it is, is like a veil over the face of the naked presence of God—like the veil that hides the Holy of Holies in the temple." (From Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation for Tuesday, October 20, 2020.)
So, as we pray and grow frustrated by God's continuing silence, this silence may be God's way of saying to us "I am listening. Now listen to me in the sound of silence. I am here." If we let go of our frantic desire for immediate answers, maybe we can learn to grow silent too, and instead focus on resting in and desiring God, God Who is the Ultimate Answer to our existence, our craving for certainty and love, the Goal of our Life's Journey. God truly is all we need. If we know that we have God and God has us, and will have us for all eternity, what more do we need?
How often, when we pray, we want answers to our questions, immediate results, and all we can hear is God's silence. Yet, God has given us so many answers to our REAL questions.
In all of our prayers, What we are REALLY asking God is "Are you listening? Do you hear me? Do you really care about me?" The signs of God's caring for us are inside us and all around us.
God created each one of us specifically, not because God HAD to but because God wanted you and me in this world. God created human beings to specifications more intricate, more complex, than the specs of the SR-71 Blackbird. Throughout the crushing heat and battles of the flights of our lives, our souls will never disintegrate under pressure. Sometimes, fueled by peace, love, joy, and awe, we can even reach the stars.
Moreover, God designed our souls to be of immortal worth. Each one of us is of inestimable value, and God knows the number of hairs on our heads! When we follow Jesus our Good Shepherd throughout our lives, acknowledging Him before the people in our lives, peace will follow us wherever we go, an inner peace that does not fear any evil: we know, deep down, that God is with us, even in the Valley of the Shadow of death.
Third, instead of fearing silence, resenting silence, trying to fill silence up in prayer time, maybe we should learn to let silence be - and find God Who is Present in Silence. If we can let go of always talking and questioning during prayer time, and learn to be silent, quieting our thoughts, emotions, and inner images, we can rest in God's Silence. Fr. Thomas Keating tells us that gradually, during Centering Prayer, we will discover that this sound of silence keeps growing until we realize that Silence can be the most concentrated dosage of Divine Presence that we can bear face-to-face.
Pope Francis reminds us that God's silence does not mean that God is not listening. If we know Who God is, we know that God takes everything we tell Him into His Heart of Love. God created each of us to His own specs, after all. If God is all we have, God is all we need - because God has created us for union with Godself in eternity.
““The Lord listens”: sometimes in prayer it is enough to know this. Problems are not always solved. Those who pray are not deluded: they know that many questions of life down here remain unresolved, with no way out; suffering will accompany us and, after one battle, others will await us. But if we are listened to, everything becomes more bearable.”