THE SOUND OF SILENCE
When I was a student of philosophy, we had a holy and wise Master of Students, Fr. Luis López de las Heras. He gave us a lecture every Saturday morning. One lecture that lingered in my mind for life was his talk on silence, a silence he practiced in his humble Dominican life. Later on, I was moved by one of my favorite songs, “The Sound of Silence” of Simon and Garfunkel: the singers, the song, and the lyrics – all marvelous. It is enchanting. I love its title!
We are invaded, bombarded today by too many words, too many noises. Silence is a great value and virtue in all religions and faiths. As human beings, as Christians, we need to hear and listen to the sound, the voice of silence throughout our life. The Church, in particular, “must discover the power of silence” (Cardinal Luis Antonio de Tagle).
Silence is the other word. After the word, preacher Lacordaire says, silence is the second power in the world. Word and silence are two ways of speaking; two aspects of communication; the two sides of talking. Both words complement each other. “We all need the use of words, but to use them with power we all need to be silent” (John Main).
Let us note that silence is of two kinds: bad silence and good silence. Bad silence (ethically) is the silence that keeps quiet when it should speak: “I believed, and therefore I spoke; we also believe, and therefore we also speak” (2 Cor 4:13). Today, we also believe; therefore, we speak. The Lord tells Paul: “Do not be afraid to speak out, nor allow yourself to be silenced continue speaking and do not keep quiet: I am with you” (Acts 18, 9-10). The Jewish authorities demanded to the apostles Peter and John not to speak of “the name,” that is, the Crucified and Risen Jesus Christ. The answer of the two apostles: “We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4, 20).
Speaking of silence without adjectives means, generally, good, positive, virtuous silence. We need silence, good silence to know ourselves more deeply, to listen to God and his creation, to Jesus, God’s Son and our Savior, to our own hearts, to all women and men – to all creatures and children of God.
Pope Leo XIII says that at times we ought not to be silent, we have to speak, as when he spoke powerfully, at the end of the 19th century, of the poverty of workers: “By keeping silent we would seem to neglect the duty incumbent on us” (Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum). The Christian is asked by his humanity and faith to speak on behalf of those who have no voice: children, women, the poor, the elderly, the migrants, and the marginalized of the world.
Forced silence is also bad, such as the silence imposed by political or religious authorities, or by others on promoters of human dignity and rights, on peaceful followers of religions and faiths. Money, too, may force some of us to keep silent when we ought not: “When money talks, the truth is silent” (Chinese Proverb). Nowadays, moreover, it is not hard to find people who do not talk because speaking is not “politically correct.”
We need silence to listen to the silent voice of our heats: “In silence, your hearts know the secrets of the days and the nights (Kahlil Gibran).
We need silence to listen to God’s silent voice, “to listen to the Voice”: “I will keep silent and let God speak within” (Meister Eckhart). “Speak, Lord, your servant listens.” Like to the prophet Elijah, God speaks to us not in the hurricane, not in the earthquake, not in the fire; God talks to us in a light murmuring sound, in “a sound of sheer silence” (Cf. I Kgs 19:11-13). To hear God’s silent voice, our senses, our hearts must be in silent mode: “I hold myself in quiet and silence, like a little child in his mother’s arms, like a little child, so I keep myself” (Ps 131:2).
Silence is needed to listen to God’s creation – to the stars, the ocean, the wind, the flowers, the birds... In his Encyclical letter Laudate Si’ (2015), Pope Francis invites us to contemplate God’s creation and to listen to its silent voice. He quotes St. John Paul II: “For the believer, to contemplate creation is to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice” (Laudate Si’ 85).
Silence is also needed to listen to others. Job tells his talking friends: “If you would only keep silent that would be your wisdom” (Job 13:5). Pope Francis speaks of the importance of learning the art of listening, “which is more than simply hearing” and implies “an openness of heart.” He recommends “respectful and compassionate listening” (Evangelii Gaudium 171). Unfortunately, some of us do not listen to others but just wait for them to finish their talking so that we can continue with ours. Simon and Garfunkel sing: “People talking without speaking; people hearing without listening…” (The Sound of Silence). We keep silent when our word will be hurtful to the other or boastful or unkind. Then, as my father used to say, “La mejor palabra es la que está por decir” (the best word is the one not yet spoken). The great mystic St. John of the Cross advises silence when facing the lives of others: “Great wisdom is to keep silent and not to look to sayings, deeds or the lives of others” (Sayings of Light and Love).
We need silence to speak the saving word. In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (2010), Pope Benedict XVI recommends that the People of God be educated on the value of silence, which is needed to speak of and listen to the Word. The Word, in fact, “can only be spoken and heard in silence, outward and inward”; “the great patristic tradition teaches us that the mysteries of Christ all involve silence” (VD 66). The liturgy speaks of “sacred silence,” which is recommended in the Eucharist, and in the recitation of the Psalms. Pauses of silence are also recommended when praying the Rosary, particularly at the beginning of each mystery.
The saints invite us to cultivate good silence in our lives. They practice the silence and silent prayer of Jesus. Like Saint Joseph, who feeling the hand of God accepts silently the motherhood of Mary and the mysterious life of Jesus (cf. Mt 1:24). He does not say a word. He just talks by the good deeds of his daily life attuned to God’s will. Like the Virgin Mary, the greatest saint, who kept all the things happening around Jesus in her heart (Lk 2:51): in her, “all was space for the Beloved and silence to listen” (Bruno Forte).
On Good Friday, in particular, Jesus is silent: his serene silence to the many questions of Pilate and Herod. His calm silence to the cry of the people “Crucify him! Crucify him!” His humble silence while he is horribly scourged at the pillar. Jesus is patiently silent through his whole passion; at times, he pronounces a few words which dramatize his sounding silence. Jesus, the Suffering Servant of Yahweh “never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before the shearers, he never opened his mouth” (Is 53:7; cf. Acts 8:32). Yes, “like a silent lamb, but in reality, instead of a lamb we have a man, and in the man, Christ that contains everything” (Meliton of Sardes).
On the Cross, Jesus faced the silence of God, too. “Why have you abandoned me?” Jesus cried out from the cross. At times, we ask God: Why have you abandoned me? God’s answer was and is silence. The silence of God, yesterday and today in the midst of darkness, of desolation, of injustices and wars is a mysterious silence partly unveiled by his love: “God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son” (Jn 3:16). Why is the good Lord silent when we suffer? “God does not want suffering; He is present in a silent way” (E. Schillebeeckx).
And to close! Word and silence are two ways of speaking, like the two eyes of the face of life, or the two wings of a bird. Word and silence are ordered to a third word: love, which is silently witnessed in good deeds. “A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak” (Benedict XVI). (FGB)
St. John of the Cross tells us that “The language God hears best is silent love.” Truly, silent love is a most powerful sound: the sound of silence! (FGB)
