Solitude Crucial to Relationship With God

Easter, the celebration of Jesus' resurrection, is an ideal occasion for Christians to resuscitate and re-empower their commitment to Jesus' teachings. Although he said and did a great many things, much of which is unrecorded, the Gospels do tell us that Jesus himself summed up his complex requirements of his followers in two deceptively simple precepts: "You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind" and "You must love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:34-39, New World Translation)

Both of these commandments, on a profound level, share an indivisible relationship with peace and quiet. This connection is unsurprising in the final analysis, given that Jesus preached the exalted status of those dedicated to social peace: "Happy are the peaceable, since they will be called 'sons of God.'" (Matthew 5:10) As for the other side of the coin, inner quiet, Jesus taught its sublimeness -- and possibility: "I leave you peace, I give you my peace. I do not give it to you the way that the world gives it. Do not let your hearts be troubled nor let them shrink for fear." (John 14:26-27)

To love God with one's entire being makes perfect sense: God is sustainer, and essence of the heart, soul, and mind. However, to love God is necessarily to know God, which is, by far, easier said than done. For this relationship, like any other involving intelligent beings and pursued with passion and sincerity, ultimately demands the type of intimacy that solitude best fosters.

Thus, according to the Gospels, deserted places were the customary setting for Jesus to commune with the Father. Jesus was in the habit of leaving behind the pressure of the crowds and the congestion and turbulence of urban centers for the stillness of a mountain or the wilderness. For example, Mark 1:35 says: "And early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went outside and left for a lonely place, and there he began praying." Matthew 14:23 says: "Eventually, having sent the crowds away, he went up into the mountains by himself to pray. Though it became late, he was there alone." (According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, one saint described prayer as "nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.")

Unfortunately, solitary places like those to which Jesus had ready access are inaccessible to the average New Yorker. As a result, for most of us solitude is predominantly of an acoustic, rather than physical, nature. In other words, most of us cannot get as far away from people as we might like, and so the peace and quiet we need in order to engage in "sense-surround intimacy" with God will depend considerably on our neighbors' activities. Which brings us to the second commandment.

Loving our neighbor goes far beyond not committing criminal acts. It is also deliberately doing good; for example, creating an environment where others can privately explore their love of God without the intrusion of our sounds. Loving our neighbors as ourselves, therefore, requires giving our neighbors' need of peace and quiet as much priority as our desire for noise. In so doing, we simultaneously honor the first commandment: we are loving God because we are providing others with an acoustic environment in which they can come to know God on their own, as well as through our respectful conduct. (Peace and quiet is, fundamentally, an expression of the virtue of charity.)

All told, one powerful, down-to-earth way in which Christians can be born again this and every Easter is, with all their heart, all their soul, and all their mind, to transform their apartments and buildings -- and hearts! -- into places where Jesus could have gone to escape the mobs and commune with the Father in tranquillity.

Ed. note: John Dallas is founder of the Bronx Campaign for Peace and Quiet. If you have a noise-related question or problem write to: Sound Advice, Norwood News, 75 E. 208th St., Bronx, NY 10467. Dallas will try to respond in a future column.

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