by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n The last couple of weeks I have been having some trouble Apparently, I tapped the wrong app In the process of trying to remove it, which took some doing, Besides these, however, there are a host of others In that vein, I guess many of you are hoping One upcoming day, however, that grabbed my attention There is actually a long tradition of self-designed epitaphs, like that of Mathematician Paul Erdos, whose tomb reads As you can probably guess, it was the gospel But then there would have been that 2nd epitaph The raising of Lazarus is without doubt It is a comment that reverberates across the centuries Common judicial wisdom is that But for believers, is a divine response delayed In 1963, Simon and Garfunkel sang about The Sounds of Silence Nonetheless, it is generally agreed that While there are many cultures, notably Asian, Recently a colleague of mine<\/a> alerted me to a few studies These and other scientific assertions, Apparently unheard prayer, Few experiences in human history Many Jewish intellectuals pondered the silence of God In one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in Night Some, maybe even Wiesel at that moment, The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber He further suggests that whoever knows God must also know Buber maintained his belief in a faithful God In a similar vein, theologian Melissa Raphael [4] ponders God\u2019s silence Yet she offers an amazing image of hope She answers that question through the testimonies God\u2019s face was revealed in these gracious women At the end of World War II, much of Europe was in ruins One morning an American soldier was driving his jeep through these war-torn streets when he spied a little boy, dressed in rags. The boy stood with his nose pressed against the steamed window of a pastry shop. Inside, the cook was working a large lump of dough for a fresh batch of doughnuts.<\/p>\n The soldier stopped, walked into the little shop, and bought a dozen doughnuts. Then he left the store and offered the bag of fresh doughnuts to the boy. \u201cHere,\u201d he said. \u201cI bought these for you.\u201d<\/p>\n The boy looked at the soldier with wide eyes and took the bag. But as the soldier started to return to his jeep, he felt a tug on his coat. He turned back and faced the boy.<\/p>\n \u201cMister,\u201d the boy asked, his eyes still wide, \u201care you God?\u201d<\/p>\n None of us will ever call a Lazarus back to life But we can emulate our Christ, Our announcement of that presence, So many folks in our own ambit When simple human kindness shatters deathlike silences [1] Eli Wiesel, Night, <\/em>trans. Marion Wiesel (New York: Hill and Wang, 2013), p. 64.<\/p>\n [2] Martin Buber, I and Thou <\/em>(New York: Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1970),\u00a0 p. 147.<\/p>\n [3] Ibid., p. 160.<\/p>\n [4] Melissa Raphael, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz: A Jewish Feminist Theory of the Holocaust <\/em>(London-New York: Routledge, 2003).<\/p>\n [5] Ibid., p. 54.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So many folks in our own ambit are languishing in the darkness of some tomb hoping God or one of God\u2019s people might speak or act in such a way that they hear the resounding invitation to come forth, leave the darkness behind, be unbound, and step into the light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":61636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3118,3294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-ars-praedicandi"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nwith the calendar \u2026 or should I say calendars
\non my phone.<\/p>\n
\nor googled the wrong website
\nbut somehow got the national everything day calendar<\/a>
\nunhappily integrated
\ninto my daily schedule.<\/p>\n
\nI learned that there are over 1500 national
\nor international day celebrations
\nthat occur on some calendars in the U.S.
\nSome of these are familiar to us
\nlike Groundhog day on February 2nd
\nor International Women\u2019s day on March 8th<\/p>\n
\nranging from the utterly serious
\nlike Memorial Day and Veterans day
\nto the completely wacky
\nlike national public sleeping day on February 28th, or
\nnational ask a stupid question day on September 28th.<\/p>\n
\nThat this is not national preach a dumb sermon day.<\/p>\n
\non the calendar for next Thursday, April 6th
\nis national plan your epitaph day,<\/a>
\ndescribed as a perfect day to figure out
\nwhat you are going to have to say about yourself
\nbefore you\u2019re gone that will linger after you\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n
\nmany published in print and online:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019ve finally stopped getting dumber\u201d
\nor the Poet Robert Frost\u2019s
\n\u201cI\u2019ve had a lover\u2019s quarrel with the world\u201d
\nor Sonny Bono\u2019s
\n\u201cand the beat goes on.\u201d
\nMel Blank, the man of 1000 voices including Bugs Bunny
\nrequested \u201cThat\u2019s all folk\u201d on his tombstone,
\npoet Dorothy Parker wanted
\n\u201cexcuse my dust\u201d
\nand then there\u2019s Rodney Dangerfield\u2019s
\n\u201cThere goes the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthat triggered these musings, as I tried to imagine
\nwhat epitaph would have graced Lazarus\u2019 tomb?
\nSome bloggers suggested that the first epitaph should have read
\n\u201cShort death,\u201d or
\n\u201cJudgement delayed,\u201d or
\n\u201cI\u2019m at my sister\u2019s house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMaybe \u201cI stinketh again,\u201d or
\n\u201cThis time for good,\u201d or
\n\u201cWaiting for the Savior\u2019s voice one more time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\none of the most dramatic stories in the gospels
\nbut one that raises many persistent questions, such as
\nwhy did Jesus wait for 4 days to show up?
\na question highlighted by Martha\u2019s poignant statement
\n\u201cIf you had been here, my brother would not have died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nsometimes rephrased as:
\n\u201cif you had heard my prayer,
\nmy child would not have overdosed,\u201d
\nor, \u201cif I was a better person,
\nmaybe God would have heard me\u201d
\nor, \u201chow long Lord, before you answer my prayer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\njustice delayed is justice denied.<\/p>\n
\na divine response denied?
\nUltimately, how do we understand or even cope with
\nthe apparent silence of God?<\/p>\n
\na West African proverb states, “Silence is also speech”
\nthe 6th century, Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu claimed that “Silence is a source of great strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAmericans and Canadians are uncomfortable<\/a>
\nwith more than a few seconds of silence in conversations.<\/p>\n
\nin which silence before a response
\nis a demonstration of thoughtfulness, even gravitas,
\nmany in the West view silence as a void that must be filled
\nespecially to fend off any appearance
\nof ignorance or indifference.<\/p>\n
\nextolling the advantages of silence.
\nOne summary article<\/a>, for example, notes that dedicated silence
\n– a silence set aside for reflection and meditation –
\nhas innumerable positive effects, for example:<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\nespecially about the healing power of silence
\nempirically establish that silence need not be unproductive,
\nempty, or diminishing.
\nBut what about the silence of God?<\/p>\n
\nthe delayed response to pressing need
\nwhether in ancient Bethany or contemporary Chicago,
\ncan be the source of deep anxiety and faith-testing.
\nIn the presence of such silence, there is even the real temptation
\nto reject the very existence of God.<\/p>\n
\nunderscore the trauma such silence can inflict on belief
\nas the Holocaust of World War II, the Shoah,
\nthe murder of 6 million people of the covenant,
\nthe extermination of over 60% of all Jews living in Europe.<\/p>\n
\nduring this unthinkable genocide.<\/p>\n
\n(Elie Wiesel\u2019s poignant memoire-novel
\nof his own survival of the Nazi death)
\nthe teenage Wiesel and thousands of others
\nwere forced to watch the execution of a child
\nall through it a voice behind him asked,
\n\u201cwhere is God? Where is he?\u201d [1]<\/p>\n
\ncame to believe that in those dark days,
\nevil won out
\nand that in the Holocaust God died.<\/p>\n
\nwas one leading figure who had to rethink this divine silence.
\nIn his classic 1923 work I and Thou
\nhe argued in pre-War days that God speaks constantly
\nbut after the Holocaust he returned to
\nan ancient biblical teaching (Deuteronomy 31:18)
\nabout the Hiding of God\u2019s face
\nacknowledging that an eclipse of God
\nis possible at any time.<\/p>\n
\nGod\u2019s remoteness and the ensuing agony of divine drought
\nupon a frightened heart. [2]
\nDid not Jesus cry out on the cross
\n“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)<\/p>\n
\nbut pointed to a fresh understanding of that presence
\nwhen he ponders God\u2019s revelation to Moses
\n\u201cI am who I am\u201d (Exodus 3:14)
\nand translates it into German as
\n\u201cI am there as whoever I am there.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n
\nparticularly at the death camp of Auschwitz.
\nShe admits that it is difficult to separate
\nGod\u2019s non-intervention in the Shoah from God\u2019s non-existence.<\/p>\n
\nwhen she changes the question from
\n\u201cwhere<\/em> was God in Auschwitz?\u201d to
\n\u201cwho<\/em> was God in Auschwitz?\u201d [5]<\/p>\n
\nof women imprisoned in these death camps
\nwho mothered, nurtured, and comforted others
\nand interprets their extraordinary tenderness
\nas a revelation of God\u2019s presence
\nin a place whose very existence would seem to reject it.<\/p>\n
\nand posited holiness in the midst of inexplicable evil.<\/p>\n
\nincluding London, where over a million houses were damaged
\none in six Londoners were homeless,
\nand many orphaned children wandered the streets.<\/p>\n
\nnor will most of us ever touch the barbarism of a death camp
\nwhere shattered souls begin to doubt their own humanity.<\/p>\n
\nupholding life and refuting God\u2019s alleged silence
\nby remembering the women of Auschwitz
\nand in much more modest ways
\nacknowledging those around us
\nin family, neighborhood, work or even in this place;
\nthose who feel entombed,
\neven abandoned by the God we profess
\nand are no longer to perceive the presence of the Holy One.<\/p>\n
\nour call to life may not be \u201cLazarus, come forth,\u201d
\nbut to the marginalized child, it could be:
\n\u201cSon, come home.\u201d
\nTo the estranged sibling:
\n\u201cWe\u2019d like you to celebrate Easter with us.\u201d
\nTo the alienated friend:
\n\u201cI thought I\u2019d surprise you with a phone call\u201d
\nOr to the isolated co-worker:
\n\u201clet\u2019s grab a beer after work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nare languishing in the darkness of some tomb
\nhoping God or one of God\u2019s people
\nmight speak or act in such a way
\nthat they hear the resounding invitation
\nto come forth, leave the darkness behind,
\nbe unbound, and step into the light.<\/p>\n
\nthe divine presence is revealed once more,
\nthe eternal voice is again heard
\nnow newly amplified through attentive disciples
\nwho mirror holy care
\nand enable resurrection to abound once more,
\nthrough Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
\n