Denver Catholic

15 DENVER CATHOLIC | JUNE 24-JULY 7, 2017 are important and necessary in all aspects of society. It's just that, due partly to thinking like this, I think we are falling further and further behind in accomplishing that goal. I have said for years (and, in fact several times here in the past few months) that the feminist movement bought into the lie of the pre-feminist era — that it is better to be a man, that men's natural gifts are more valuable to society than women's gifts, and that women become "equal" to the extent that we become more like men. One result of that has been that, while women are present in more and more areas of society, women's gifts have not necessarily joined them. If women are valued to the extent that we become like men, then our natural inclination will be to suppress our own gifts and attempt to cultivate more masculine characteristics. I'm not talking about wardrobe or mannerisms here. I'm talking about patterns of linear thinking, of tenden- cies to value achievement over rela- tionship, etc. Not bad traits, in and of themselves. But better when balanced with the feminine gifts rooted in rela- tionship. Women, however, frequently fi nd that we are welcomed into the worlds of business, politics, etc, specif- ically to the degree that we can think, and function, more like men. Invention is not a specifi cally "masculine" endeavor. Nor is busi- ness nor politics nor any other endeavor of human society. In the same way, child raising, teaching and nursing are not specifi cally "femi- nine." But we approach each some- what di• erently, bringing to them our unique giftedness as men and as women. And when that uniqueness is denied or devalued, we all su• er. To once again quote St. JPII the Great, "It is only through the duality of the 'masculine' and the 'feminine' that the 'human' fi nds full realization." We can't a• ord to lose either one. The way God speaks: A review of Cardinal Robert Sarah's The Power of Silence I n the Catholic world, it was a year of silence. Martin Scorsese ful- fi lled his longstanding dream to adapt Shusaku Endo's novel¦Silence¦for fi lm. The book chronicles two young Jesuits in Japan searching for their lost mentor, rumored to have aban- doned the faith. Japan experienced a massive number of martyr- doms as the Emperor banned the newly established religion in 1587, as it was gaining converts quickly. The novel asks: "Why is God silent in the face of this persecution?" Endo writes: "Behind the depressing silence of this sea, the silence of God … the feeling that while men raise their voices in anguish God remains with folded arms, silent." It's a question many people ask: Why is God silent?¦ This year also saw the release of Cardinal Robert Sarah's second interview book,¦The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise.¦Cardinal Sarah, originally from Guinea, Africa, serves as the Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Wor- ship and the Discipline of the Sacra- ments.¦Coupled with Scorsese's fi lm, his book makes a signifi cant contribu- tion. God is silent because, Cardinal Sarah tells us, silence is the language of God (238). We generally think of silence as a sign of absence or impo- tence, but Sarah points us to a deeper reality. God is present, but due to our inability to enter silence with a listen- ing heart, we do not hear his voice. "At the heart of man there is an innate silence, for God abides in the innermost part of every person. God is silence, and this divine silence dwells in man. In God, we are inseparably bound up with silence. … God car- ries us, and we live with him at every moment by keeping silence. Nothing will make us discover God better than his silence inscribed in the center of our being. If we do not cultivate this silence how can we fi nd God?" (22). Sarah also points out that we are making God silent in a di• erent way today. Though many still ask why God is silent in the midst of su• er- ing, even more people fail even to think about the problem. They are too busy, caught up in the constant noise and distraction of technological media.¦Sarah prophetically calls us away from distraction, calls us to the desert with Christ to hear the voice of God again. It is not a voice that answers our problems with clear, verbal solutions. It is a voice that speaks in the heart, speaking a lan- guage that surpasses words and gives answers beyond our desire for easy solutions.¦ The fi rst two chapters explain the fundamental points that God speaks in silence and yet noise saturates our lives, crowding out any time or desire for silence. Chapter three establishes that we need silence to enter into prayer and the liturgy, because silence expresses mystery and profundity more deeply than words. The fourth chapter speaks directly to the issue of God's silence in the face of su• ering raised by Endo. We cannot understand evil, because it is irrational, but must prayerfully respond to it with Christ on the Cross who embraced it all. The last chapter consists of a beautiful and pro- found conversation with a master of silence, the Father General of the Car- thusian Order, Dom Dysmas de Lassus. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recently wrote a preface for the German edition of the book, strongly endorsing it. In the preface, he says "Sarah teaches us silence—being silent with Jesus, true inner stillness, and in just this way he helps us to grasp the word of the Lord anew." He also tells us that "Cardinal Sarah is a spir- itual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us" and that "with Cardi- nal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands."¦The Power of Silence¦reveals the spiritual underpinning of the car- dinal's liturgical work and the need for all of us to enter more deeply into worship through silent participation in Christ's o• ering of himself to the Father. Overall, the book provides a timely and needed reality check. As technol- ogy pervades our lives more and more, we have to enter intentionally into the silence and solitude of intimacy with God through prayer. We also need to recognize the power of God's silent presence in the world and our lives. To Endo's assertion that "the silence of God was something I could not fathom," Cardinal Sarah answers that silence is the way God speaks if only we will listen. Guest Column Jared Staudt is the catechetical formation specialist for the O® ce of Evangelization and Family Life Ministries. JARED STAUDT, PHD Recent all-woman screenings of Wonder Woman were the source of ridicule by some, but the feminine genius is worthy of all praise – and wonder. PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES

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