Solitude

Living in cities and large towns, many of us know what it is to live surrounded by noise. Is there any of us who is not irritated by the traffic congestions on our roads? All kinds of pollution assail us, paralyze our movements and our lives. The car honks, can we just get used to them? Now, through all our waking hours, we are bombarded by sounds and noises created by our machines, screaming for our attention. We are the first of our race to be warned about dangerous levels of decibels. But strangely we seem to like noise: we like our headphones even during our morning walks and jogs, and aerobic and yoga sessions. We are ready to face the world only when armed with a set of earphones. The soaps and serials on TV accompany our busy housewives all through the day and the night. The youngsters seem to like only loud music. The end-of-the-day news sessions seem incomplete without Arnab Goswami like loud and shouting-at-each-other debates. We are all wired for sound.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of our day to day living, is there time for silence? In the noise-cluttered lives of ours do we give space to ourselves and to God? I believe many of us do want some kind of escape far from the madding crowd. In our busy lives do we make time and space for solitude? Even when we have some time for ourselves, what do we do? We pick up our cell phones, busy ourselves with WhatsApp, Facebook or other social network media. These have a knack of killing our solitude. They are not just waste of time, but they are potentially harmful and dangerous if abused.

Yet those who seek God are more likely to find Him in solitude. Silence is the language of God; everything else is poor translation. The importance of becoming still, can we ignore? You will agree with me when I say that we need at least 20 minutes a day for ourselves, and for God: not for "saying" more prayers or completing our restless novenas, but to sit in stillness and silence. This is a time for enjoying God, or perhaps even enduring God if we have issues with Him.

Christ told his apostles, "You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while." He is telling us the same. In our hectic activism, Jesus invites us into silence and solitude. He does not want us to be always in a movement mode, always in a service mode. He wants us to rest with him. For Jesus prayer seems to be a matter of waiting in love, returning to love, and trusting that love is the bottom stream of reality. That's why prayer isn't primarily words; it's primarily a place, an attitude, a stance, a state that precedes “saying” any individual prayers. That's why Paul could say, "Pray always," and "Pray unceasingly." If we read that as requiring words, it is surely impossible. We've got a lot of other things to do. We can pray unceasingly, however, if we find the stream and know how to wade in waters. The stream will flow through us, and all we have to do is consciously stay there.

The most challenging aspect of our Christian lives, I believe, is not about finding more work or service to express our Christian vocation, but finding that lonely place for solitude, prayer and reflection in our busy lives. Workaholics do not find a model in Jesus. He doesn't want workaholics, he wants centred people imbued with his spirit. He merely wants instruments, not master-builders or messiahs who will plan others' salvation. He himself is the Messiah already, he wants convinced people to be with him, and to be sent out into the world. But he will plan everything, we only need to second the motion. Are we ready?