On Monday morning, September 26, the Holy Father received in audience the participants in the XXIII General Chapter of the Congregation of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family. The Pontiff encouraged the religious to «always be a prophecy of that school of the Gospel which is the way of salvation for the world».
“…that the silence of Nazareth, which cultivated the Holy Family, teach you, in your specific vocation as religious “contemplation and interiority, always being willing to listen to the good inspirations and doctrine of the true teachers, the necessity and value of proper formation, study, meditation, an intense interior life, personal prayer that only God sees”, said Pope Francis in his address to the Chapter Sisters of the Congregation of the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, whom he received in audience in the Vatican Apostolic Palace.
Humble listening and synodality
In his address, the Holy Father highlighted the spirit of welcome and universal sisterhood of the religious. “I see with satisfaction that you come from every corner of the world, and it is a good thing because it indicates that you truly live a spirit of welcome and universal sisterhood, in accordance with your special relationship with the “Holy Family”. The Pontiff also highlighted the motto of the General Chapter, which revolves around two ideas: humble listening and synodality. «They are inspiring words, which have a deep root in religious life. To listen, the first thing that is needed is silence, deep silence, inner silence, that which we find in prayer”.
Our lifestyles are «full of noise»
In this sense, Pope Francis, recalling the well-known discourse in Nazareth of St. Paul VI, said that our own ways of life are «full of noise». “It seems that the noise important thing is to find that stimulus able to attract the attention of the other, that produces the most immediate response possible. For many, raising the voice, physically or morally, presents itself as the solution to coax the deafened mass to opt for their idea or opinion, always looking for a way to ensure that their signal is heard more, that it is more attractive or surprising, to assert themselves. To one’s dismay, one usually finds that those who had been called almost immediately turn away to flock to the call of a cry that is even more impactful. From one shout to another. This brutalizes, brutalizes, be afraid of the word, this going from one cry to another, this brutalizes humanity, limiting our freedom to the point of making us slaves to those who have the ability to condition those signals, through the media, education, public or political opinion, thus imposing their agendas, in this way, with petulance, with complacency”.
Go against the current, seek silence
Faced with this world «full of noise,» the Holy Father said that the prophecy that Jesus asks of us is indeed to go against this current, to seek out silence, to detach ourselves from the world, from noise. This permits us to pay attention and, with artisanal patience, to identify the different sounds, to weigh them up and to distinguish them. In such a way, that initial clamour begins to take shape; what seemed dissonant will be understood and situated, it will have a name, it will have a face. No note will be too high or too low, and no sound will be strident to our ears if we find the harmony that only our silence can give. And I say that only our silence can give, because harmony is found, not imposed. How many times we meet people who seem good, but are not harmonious people, people who do not have an inner unity that inspires them to go forth. That harmony that is born, that is not imposed.
From our prophetic silence, we combat with humility
And on this path of seeking silence, Pope Francis warned that the temptation is to have a beautiful melody in mind, and to reject or try to silence what is not in tune with it. I have my tune, I have my rhythm here, and all the rest is out. Temptation. But this is judging the other, placing oneself in God’s place, deciding who deserves and who does not deserve to be there. It is a great arrogance, that must be combatted with the humility of our prophetic silence. If I am capable of listening in this way, I will be able to hear all the voices clearly, all of them, understand their order, what they respond to, what they want to say, and why they say so in that way, at times in a way that is so disjointed and so unusual.”
«Be prophets of listening»
This is the origin of the Holy Father’s invitation to women religious to “be prophets of listening, first of all listening to the voice of God, who calls to you to love all without distinction, to love creation as a gift, to see its greatness in all, as Saint Francis teaches us in his Canticle of the creatures. This is the melody that is imposed in a natural way, because it is the proper essence of all things. In this melody, even pain, darkness, death, find their meaning, and they also find the brother in difficulty, those who are in need of forgiveness, in need of redemption, in need of a second chance; we can understand the reasoning of those who think differently from us, of those who contradict us, and even of our own limits”.
From cacophony to symphony
It is precisely from this silence, from this silent listening to God, this silence in which man encounters God, that we can pass from cacophony to symphony, Pope Francis affirmed. To the ‘sin’ (συν-) of synodality or, and this is the same thing, of walking together (συν -ὁδος), to being a choir with one heart and one soul, even though we are in different times and situations. It is not a utopia, if we truly convince ourselves that raising our voices is not the path, that the only path is Jesus. I will not hide from you that it is the path of the cross, of humility, of poverty, of service. It is the path chosen by Saint Francis, and by your venerable founder, Luis Amigó, who meditated daily on the Passion, inviting you to embrace the style of littleness and mortification as the path of heaven.
Always be a prophecy of this school of the Gospel
Finally, the Holy Father encouraged the women religious, if, before the overwhelming silence of the Passion, the way is questioned like Pilate, and placed before the naked Truth, we ask, in the words of Saint Paul VI, that the silence of Nazareth, which cultivated the Holy Family, teach you, in your specific vocation as religious “contemplation and interiority, always being willing to listen to the good inspirations and doctrine of the true teachers, the necessity and value of proper formation, study, meditation, an intense interior life, personal prayer that only God sees” (cf. Saint Paul VI, Speech in Nazareth, 5 January 1964) – this last part of from Saint Paul VI, all of it. And this in such a way that you may always be prophecy of that school of the Gospel which is the path of salvation for the world.
Renato Martinez – Vatican City
SOURCE: Vatican News
