Silence

(Found here)

“Some kinds of silence are evil, caused by the external suppression of free speech. This is the realm of fear of external threats, usually passing.

Other kinds are caused by the internal self-suppression of speech due to the terrible blows of injustice that destroy trust, creating suspicion of all other human beings: ‘No man can be trusted,’ laments one of the writers in the Old Testament. This is the realm of fear internalized and made habitual.

Certain kinds of silence are holy, the ground of being as presence, a life as a living word. Words may be used, yet the primary language is presence to another, both listening and speaking. This is the realm of Love.

‘Perfect love casts out fear.’ (1 John 4:18)

. . . On a planet crammed with ever-increasing news of a volatile nature, which is the noise made when titanic ships meet unexpected icebergs, or the cacophony generated by an entire civilization wired for sound, observing and analyzing itself as it warps into unintelligible shapes, I hesitate as never before to add my own little bit.

. . . As I get older (and older and older) I have sensed more and more the mysterious nature of Time. With an increasing urgency that has steadily grown in my thoughts during the past several years, I have been mystified and intrigued by what seems to be the acceleration of time itself. The phenomenon, perceived or objective, may be due to alterations in the mind as old age progresses. Perhaps, too, it is due to the increasing complexification of contemporary life. It may also be due to the fact that there is less and less silence in our world as the consuming and entertainment and rhetoric of our era magnifies the spurious ‘lordship’ of man at every turn.

It struck me recently that when the Three Wise Men from the east knelt in front of the newborn Jesus they probably fell silent in a state of awe. And on the day when Jesus appears in the clouds as He returns in glory, will we too be struck dumb and fall to our knees in silent attention? Or will we find ourselves chattering analytically and writing learned commentary on it?

How rare the phenomenon of silence has become. So much noise. So little listening—especially the most important listening of all—to the ‘still quiet voice’ of the Holy Spirit speaking in our hearts.

. . . [The] silence of Christ is a fundamental dimension of His presence to us—the word He desires to speak to us. We cannot yet understand it or appreciate it, because we want Him to ‘talk’ to us, to solve our problems as quickly and as efficiently as possible, during the little window of time we have allotted to Him in our busy schedules. Focused on ourselves, our concerns, on a thousand matters other than the stunningly absolute truth of His presence, we chatter at Him as we simultaneously strain to hear Him with noise-filled ears, as if everything relies on us, as if we must penetrate a wall of indifference and unhearing. Nothing could be further from the truth. He hears and cares with total attention of heart/mind/soul, with a gaze that is constantly upon us, waiting for us to grow still, to rest in Him, so that He might truly speak to us in the heart of our own soul.

. . .

‘The silence of God is different from the silence of men. It is not opposed to the word: word and silence are one in God . . . The silence of God is transformed by love into the Word. The Word of God is a self-giving silence, giving itself to man. . . . In prayer the word rises from silence, just as every real word rises from silence, but it comes out of it only to travel straight to God.’

‘Nothing has changed the nature of man so much as the loss of silence. The invention of printing, technics, compulsory education—nothing has so altered man as this lack of relationship to silence, this fact that silence is no longer taken for granted as something as natural as the sky above or the air we breathe. Man who has lost silence has not merely lost one human quality, but his whole structure has been changed thereby.’

~Max Picard (from The World of Silence)

. . . There is more that I want to say before I go. I believe in the truths I would like to communicate, but I pause to wonder if the whole exercise would be David facing the Goliath of our times with a sling full of ineffective verbiage, or Don Quixote tilting at windmills with rhetorical monologues, or even (in low moments) Hamlet groaning to Polonius, ‘words, words, words.’

Far better to show you the face of my wife, her great beauty aged with wisdom and love. Or my newborn grandson’s sparkling eyes and the sound of his first laugh. And the wind in the apple tree at night, the coo-cooing of the mourning doves on our roof, a married couple in the bird kingdom who wake us every morning. And the unthinkably tiny brown eggs in the nest guarded by the sparrows who took up residence in our hedge for a while, until their offspring had flown. Then the unthinkably distant stars in the heavens, the watching lights of Paradise that are far beyond the reach of all evil. The astonishing design of a pomegranate fruit, or a pinecone, or the seed pod of the eucalyptus tree. The kindly look from a friend, a warm hand on the shoulder, a can of exotic coffee left anonymously on our doorstep, the wholesome young people with goodness in their faces who open the door for the old fellow (myself) at the post office.

Need it be said that in our town there are also haters and slanderers and purveyors of twisted ideologies, because all manner of human beings live here. It has taken me a lifetime to learn that nothing I might say would change their minds. No articles or books would enlarge their consciousness. They are determined in the way of rage as liberation and malice as justice.

A genuine smile might do it, a glance of mercy and love into the heart of darkness. But I will need to rest awhile before I attempt it. Yes, in the Silence I will find rest and strength for the tasks ahead.”

~Michael O’Brien (from Fragments in a Season of Fury)