The greatest happiness on earth lies in noble and courteous relations with others and the calm, silent and serene relationship with God.

Newsdesk (24/07/2024 9:35, Gaudium Press) The greatest happiness on this earth is found relationships that are respectful, noble and uplifting. In Heaven, this will come to perfection in the full enjoyment of the Beatific Vision. It can be difficult, then, to grasp why the saints extolled solitude. Yet, isolation can be a blessing, for it offers an ideal means for an excellent relationship with God. The healthy renunciation of the instinct of sociability, for supernatural reasons, is frequently rewarded — by a special grace and calling of God – with an ineffable relationship with Him. These two types of relationship with God are precisely the essence of the first verses of the Gospel for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Love and Joy

The Apostles had been sent on a mission by Our Lord, two by two, to different places (cf. Mk 6:7). There is no historical information about how long this separation between them lasted, nor about the places they travelled. We can well imagine the physical and emotional energy they put into this first apostolic adventure. Going from working as fishermen to exorcists, wonderworkers and preachers, without a long preparatory course in some school, must have caused no small amount of wear and tear for each of them, not to mention the unspeakable and growing homesickness that assailed them. Had they set a date for their reunion? Nothing is known about this either. It may even have happened by chance, but what is certain is that they all coincided in their return to Jesus.

‘The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught’ (Mk 6:30).

It was their first great separation. After so long and countless adventures, returning to the Master must have been a momentous event in each of their lives. Although Jesus Christ lived under the veils of a suffering and mortal human nature, any act of admiration and kindness towards him was, in essence, a direct adoration of God. There was the same Jesus who would later undergo Resurrection and Ascension, acting within His chosen ones with the full penetration of His divinity. What conviviality in this world could be more excellent than this? The Master was God Himself, acting through grace in their souls and, at the same time, using His voice and words to instruct them. All the terms He employed were the most perfect and irreplaceable, in high, noble and biblical language, always accompanied by an affection that could never be described or surpassed. At no time did the Messiah fail to attract them and lead them to a desire for heavenly things.

The atmosphere of cordiality, brotherly love and joy created by Jesus must have been heavenly. Everyone felt at ease to tell ‘all they had done and taught’. And there was no sign of the evil vice of vanity among them. From the outset, they had learned the lesson: ‘apart from Me you can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5). There must have been a great manifestation of humility on their part, recognising in Christ the source of every triumph obtained during that commencement of evangelisation.

Unity grows between those who have to face an obstacle together. Feeling displeasure at the relationship with those from their old school and the mentality of the religious instruction of their childhood strengthened their desire to meet their true brothers again and, above all, the Master. The more the disciples grew in love for Jesus, the more they distanced themselves from their former companions, and vice versa.

In this way, an idealised and fraternal community was being formed among the Apostles, in which everything was transformed into forgiveness, love and benevolence. This was real friendship. In such an environment, one enjoys unsurpassable happiness here on earth, a preamble to eternal happiness in Heaven, for, in both, God is the centre of existence.

Solitude

“He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.” (Mk 6:31).

This is the other side of the ‘coin’ of conviviality with God: silence, isolation and repose.

Jesus Himself, in His most holy humanity, felt the need for this in order to enjoy maximum intimacy with the Father, despite being hypostatically united with Him. As if the thirty years of his existence in Nazareth weren’t enough, He withdrew into complete isolation for forty days, in the desert, in silence, before the onset of His public life. And even during His time among the people, it was customary for Him to take refuge in the silence of the mountains. Finally, before the Passion, He embraced a sorrowful abandonment for three hours in the Garden of Olives.

It is in light of this that St. John of the Cross exhorts us: ‘The Father spoke one Word, which was His Son, and this Word He speaks always in eternal silence, and in silence it must be heard by the soul.’[1]

How mysterious and essential silence is! God visits us more in recollection than in external activities. In general, our supernatural life takes firmer and more decisive steps in silence than in the midst of action. The Sacraments also produce grace in our souls under the mantle of silence. Silence teaches us how to speak, as Seneca affirms: ‘He who does not know how to be silent will not know how to speak.’[2]

Similarly, serenity and calm are important both in human relationships and in contemplation. In the Gospel, Jesus never gives the impression of being breathless with haste. Occasionally, He even ‘wastes time’: everyone is looking for Him and He does not allow Himself to be found, so absorbed is He in prayer. In Sunday’s Gospel passage, he invites His disciples to ‘waste time’ with Him: ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while’. He often counsels against agitation. How many health benefits are reaped from ‘slowness’!

In this regard, Preacher of the Pontifical Household, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, rightly observes: ‘Given that slowness has evangelical connotations, it is important to value the occasions of rest or delay that are distributed over the succession of days. Sunday and the feasts, if well utilised, are a way to interrupt the rhythm of an excessively agitated life and to establish a more harmonious relationship with things, people and, above all, with oneself and with God.”[3]

In this way, let us ask God to give us the grace to find true happiness on this earth both by living in holy, noble and elevated relationships with others and through a calm, silent and serene relationship with God.

By Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias

Extracted with alterations from New Insights on the Gospels, Vol. IV

[1] SÃO JOÃO DA CRUZ. Dichos de Luz y Amor, n. 99. In: Vida y Obras. 5 ed. Madrid: BAC, 1964, p. 966.

[2] SÊNECA. De moribus. L. I, n. 145.

[3] CANTALAMESSA, Raniero. Echad las redes. Reflexiones sobre los Evangelios. Ciclo B. Valencia: Edicep, 2003, p. 259.

Compiled by Roberta MacEwan