When God falls silent

By Álvaro Puig de Morales

Once again I find myself in the house of the Lord. How fortunate this is, for I am trying to find myself and my faith, which is hidden to men: it is an old man’s faith! A complicated faith. A faith which is hard to find after all that has occurred along this extensive route. Still I am without a spiritual childhood which will allow me to have the type of faith which should be for this day and for all days to come. In my youth, faith blossomed; there was a faith and a spiritual childhood which were borne as the fruit of the breath of life. I am saying this only to recall that young man I once was and once came to be. These words are as scandalously deep as the conversations I exchanged with a young man whom I found amidst the peace of the mountains, by the stream of life. God fell silent and listened to them. I am sure of it. God made him, a young boy, listen when He fell silent. God and the young boy allowed me to find my faith and my spiritual childhood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Álvaro Puig
• Release date: Jul 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9788494903885

Álvaro Puig de Morales

Álvaro Puig de Morales nació en Bilbao en 1932. Máster en Marketing y gestión empresarial - curso de Casos Prácticos ESADE - actualmente es tutor personal y escritor. Títulos: Más allá de las sombras de la muerte, La niña que no nació, Conoce tu verdad, La bondad de un loco, Los silencios de Dios, Mis conversaciones con la ermitaña, Confesiones a Zoé, traducidos al catalán, al inglés, al alemán, al italiano, al francés y al portugués. Atraído por otras disciplinas, posee un amplio conocimiento en lo que implica la psico-sociología en relación con el individuo. Especializándose en el análisis, motivación y concepción de producto, así como en sus posibilidades de mercado; habiendo impartido clases en la Escuela Superior de Marketing. Presidente interino del curso de Alta Dirección de la Escuela de Alta Dirección ESADE, ha dado clases en todas las Cámaras de Comercio nacionales, también como profesor preparador, Administración y Dirección de empresas de la UNED y como Directivo y Consultor en Empresa, Industrial, Publicidad y Comunicación, Construcción, Industria alimentaria, Decoración y Centro comercial.

Book preview

When God Falls Silent

WHEN GOD

FALLS SILENT

by Álvaro Puig ©

Álvaro Puig

1

When God Falls Silent

© Álvaro Puig – Telephone: [phone]

Barcelona (Spain)

E-mail: [e-mail]

The total or partial reproduction of this work by any

means, including photocopying and electronic processing,

is strictly prohibited without the permission of the

copyright holder and as detailed in current legal

stipulations.

Álvaro Puig

2

When God Falls Silent

When God falls silent, I hear Him.

The Author.

Álvaro Puig

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When God Falls Silent

For those who wish to meet God.

According to the pilgrim.

Álvaro Puig

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When God Falls Silent

Speak only when asked, for this story lies at the

bosom of love.

According to God.

Álvaro Puig

5

When God Falls Silent

Once again I find myself in the house of the Lord.

How fortunate this is, for I am trying to find myself

and my faith, which is hidden to men: it is an old

man’s faith! A complicated faith. A faith which is

hard to find after all that has occurred along this

extensive route. Still I am without a spiritual

childhood which will allow me to have the type of

faith which should be for this day and for all days to

come. In my youth, faith blossomed; there was a

faith and a spiritual childhood which were borne as

the fruit of the breath of life. I am saying this only

to recall that young man I once was and once came

to be. These words are as scandalously deep as the

conversations I exchanged with a young man whom

I found amidst the peace of the mountains, by the

stream of life. God fell silent and listened to them. I

am sure of it. God made him, a young boy, listen

when He fell silent. God and the young boy allowed

me to find my faith and my spiritual childhood.

Álvaro Puig

6

When God Falls Silent

A story told by

A young man,

The old man,

A priest,

The bell ringer,

The village schoolteacher,

A mayor,

The doctor,

A pilgrim,

The scribe,

A visitor,

The branch of the forest,

The winged bird,

The bird of the forest,

The stream,

The teacher,

The grasshopper,

The scarecrow,

The squirrel,

The bird of the field,

The sparrow,

A blind man,

A pedlar,

The gardener,

The author and God.

All characters are fictional, with the exception of

God.

Álvaro Puig

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When God Falls Silent

He left man to make his own mistakes, to suffer his

own secret loves, to dream of being like Him.’

The young man said, ‘God is the full spirit of

wisdom. He alone cannot suffer man’s sorrows.’

‘Away with humanity!’ exclaimed the leaves on the

wind, ‘how wrong they are in almost all things! One

such error is their inability to find peace and

calmness. If they drew closer to God, they would

find greater peace.’

They whispered this, for they feared that man might

think that they were talking rubbish.

God smiled, and His smile was reflected in a stone.

The stream thought, ‘How very true are the words

of the leaves on the wind!’ God sometimes did not

feel that He knew what to do with the young man in

order to show him the realities told by the pebbles

in the stream, the birds, the wind, or often also

Himself. He was often unaware of the whys and

wherefores of life, of the reason for having been

born, of the need to find peace, or of the need to

avoid pain. For he did not know how to make life a

unique experience. He would find very little after

life other than endless floating in infinity.

God went on, ‘The depth, the uniqueness, the magic

and the love of knowing how to live are only found

in the present, and make man himself unique.

Because the mystery of man’s existence is unique, it

is also magnificent and beyond measure. I gave him

so many miracles, mysteries and holy desires! And

even then he does not manage to realise ‘or’ he does

Álvaro Puig

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When God Falls Silent

not know how to use them. He is like the injured

animal who does not think that his injuries were

made to make him go into the cursed forest where

branches are like sheets of metal but as sharp as

knives.’ God despairingly repeated, ‘I do not know

what to do with man to make him wake up and hear

that which the leaves on the wind and the stream are

proclaiming. That there should be more than prayers

and demands recited between joy and fear. Our

fears can never be avoided, for they somehow

nourish us.

God took shelter in such thoughts, and fell

peacefully asleep.

When the young man saw this, he said, ‘So, too, is

my God’s peacefulness sanctifying. The old man

could have told me so.’ The young man felt that the

old man had left him when he most needed him. He

began to cry, and a cloud picked up his sorrow. So

it rained. And the Earth was thankful, for she felt

very dry.

A hermit who was courting the Earth said, ‘Let us

not wail for our dead, for they have done enough on

‘Earth’. Nor should we do so for the living, for it

will not reduce their suffering. Let us let them

suffer, though we do ‘not’ want them to do so.’

Piously, the young man said, ‘Prayer is a substitute

for the miracle of avoiding suffering or of easing it.

The saints have never revealed to us the full extent

of their holiness. Or of the holiness of their

Álvaro Puig

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When God Falls Silent

suffering. Their holiness is as unknown as the

thoughts of the branches upon the trees.’

‘Suffering is in man,’ added the Earth. ‘That is why

the village dweller suffers with his harvest, and the

shepherd with his flock, and the gardener with his

vines. We know that God is not far from such

things. May our prayers protect them, and may they

protect the man in the country and the man in the

city. For we live off these things. Let us seek less to

be made holy than to be protected from fear, or

‘not’ to come to feel fear.

The young man recalls the words which the old man

once said to him: ‘Do not spend so long thinking

about God. God left us our heritage, and He is the

executor of His own mysterious will, not because

He wants to be so but because He must be so.’

The young man recalled the words which the old

man had once said to him. He had not understood

them then, but he now knew the suffering of the

human race.

He saw the unhappiness of the birds of the field. He

felt his own tears at the old man’s death. Despite his

young age, he had known suffering, and God had

been no help. He told him, like Solomon, ‘Do not

suffer so. What purpose will it serve? You belong to

these works, and you cannot change your contract

or anyone else’s.’

The young man accepted what he had been told. He

came to think that suffering was part of being

Álvaro Puig

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When God Falls Silent

human. The old man believed in a better place. He

did not. God did not mind that he did not believe in

it; what mattered to Him was that he should ask

questions. His potential doubts were acts of faith

which He would always answer sooner or later. A

‘teacher’ must answer his pupils’ questions, and the

young man was God’s pupil. He exclaimed, ‘I give

thanks to the heavens and to the Earth for my

current existence.’ His enthusiasm poured forth and,

holding back his emotion, he said, ‘I shall find a girl

with whom to live and who will understand and

improve the thoughts of a young man who, through

his own sensitivity, has begun following the way of

the spirit. Never mind whether she is holy. God’s

own holiness is sufficient for all.’

God heard the young man’s wishes, and replied, ‘I

shall bring about all that you have desired. I have

my chosen few. If I had the confidence to create

many men, why should I not demand or expect

more from one of them? But I admit that I have not

always received what good I expected of men,

which seemed to me an insult to my self-assurance.

You did not think that God would think like that.

But that does not stop Him from doing so. What is

your image of God?’ He asked him. ‘You perhaps

think the same as other men? If you do, think again

and focus on my words, so that the emotion you feel

for me leads you, if not to conceive the essence of

my holiness, at least to understand why men make

so many errors and misjudgements about me. The

young are my chosen ones, but nor do I wish to be

no more than a spinning top in men’s eyes. And

they so often justify their mistakes and their evil

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When God Falls Silent

through my name, or through the name of the stars!

The stars ignore them. They just keep watch over it

all. They do not interfere with the lives of men.’

‘God,’ said the stars, ‘is the one and only judge. If

man was born in love, may God’s love be realised

in all ‘His’ justice.’

Justice should help with the tale being told here.

The young man was the only one left in the tale.

The old man died. The young boy left without

saying a word. What was left to help the young man

finish his tale? The birds of the field, the grass

which had disappeared among the bushes, and the

air which, with the passing seasons, had gone off

with the cool wind. The young man felt sad, and

exclaimed, ‘Why is youth left alone? Everyone else

has someone with whom they can take shelter, but

what can I do with my life?’

His question hung in the air and was wafted by a

branch. It is still in the hollow of a leaf. The leaf

asked itself, ‘Who is asking such questions? I have

enough trouble withstanding the rain and the dust of

the road, and now I am being asked questions by

some youth. As though I were responsible for other

people’s salvation.’

God answered the leaf, ‘You must realise that the

smallest of things can bring salvation, and you are

one of them in the midst of my creation. Do not

lament, for if this were not so, humans would not

see the importance of the smallest of things, and it

is these things which will ultimately save them.’

Álvaro Puig

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When God Falls Silent

In so doing, God took a droplet of water, for the leaf

was dry. ‘How ungrateful nature is in the face of my

greatest gift to her: the human race!’

The young man gained years by thinking of other

people’s lives and wondering about his own. So,

too, had God felt the sadness of being alone. The

feeling of what He could do to help. For a moment,

His spirit was lost in the infinity of existence. The

young man fell silent with troubling respectfulness,

realised the meaning of faith and how necessary it

was to the life of mankind, despite its seeming like

a fairytale, and could not help but exclaim, ‘How

marvellous this is; it is like having another child!’

His recollections of childhood were hazy; he could

barely remember it. Everything was so blurred…

His father had left home when he was very little.

His mother took care of the house and brought fruit

from the orchard. A pious woman would give them

food. No, my friend, it had not been a shameful

childhood, and nor had it been a happy one. It had

been one of the many that were on offer. What he

regretted most was not having met his grandmother,

for