23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
September 6, 2009
Silence and Words: Pathways to Two Different Worlds
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
My Silence
Since my three months at a Trappist Monastery in 2007, I have begun each day with some silence.
I get up at 4:30am and, after making the bed and straightening up the bedroom, I sit in silence and prayer for an hour. I recall the words of Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”
I try to be still physically – just sitting and being aware of my breathing and my existence. And I try to be still mentally and spiritually – just being with myself and with God.
That’s how I begin each day – workdays as well as vacation days – with this type of prayer. It has become an important routine that began at the monastery, although there we got up at 2:45am.
The Deaf-Mute
In today’s Gospel, there is a man who is a deaf-mute (Hand to ear and mouth.)
How much he must have appreciated receiving the gifts of both speech and silence Jesus gives him. Perhaps he appreciated these more than we do.
Words and the Outer World
When you and I were in our mother’s womb, we were wrapped in silence for nine months.
Then, one day, we entered the world of noise and words. Our parents spoke words to us when they fed, comforted, and bathed us.
Their words, in truth, drew us into fuller and fuller life with the external world around us. And of course, eventually our speaking and our words began to connect us with one another.
Words enable us to tell others what we think and how we feel. Our words relate us to the external world – to the world outside ourselves.
Silence and the Inner World
In contrast to words uniting us to the external world, silence relates us to the inner world, to our innermost self.
This silence is as important and, in a way, even more important than words. Silence is crucial, if we are to become all we are destined to be.
Silence Versus Quiet
It is very important to distinguish quiet from silence. They are both very different.
For example, a dog can be quiet; and a tree can be quiet; and a rock is the quietest of all three. But only we human beings can be silent.
That is because quiet is the absence of noise, but silence is the absence of speech when words are possible to speak. Silence, then, is the choice not to speak.
Kinds of Silence
You and I can experience different kinds of silence.
Ø The tongue-biting silence when our judgment tells us not to say something
Ø The stomach-gnawing silence when we are angry
Ø The awesome silence in the face of majestic mountains
Ø The reverent silence in the presence of God
Silence As Fullness
Silence is not nothing. Silence is not an absence or a vacuum. Instead, silence is the fullness from which reality and life come.
Just look at the Book of Genesis. In the original, infinite silence, God speaks and everything comes into being.
Remember, the silence comes first. The same is true for us and it is very important for us to recognize this.
It is in our silence that we form kind or thoughtful words to speak. And if that silence is not there, we know form experience that our words may just be empty and loud. It is in silence that we make careful decisions, and without silence our actions may be rash and reckless.
Silence is from where we choose the clothing we will wear today or from where we choose our vocation for life. Silence is from where we entertain evil plans or loving actions.
In our silence, we discover that our inner space is just as infinite and as exciting as our outer space. It is in silence that we explore the depths of our personal existence.
Challenges to Silence
There are some current challenges to silence in your life and mine.
I think that we – beginning with myself – need to be aware of the place our cell phones, Blackberries, and I-Phones play in our daily lives. Do we really need to be connected or reachable at every moment of the day?
Is our cell phone there for my convenience or has it usurped every moment of silence I might have? Who is in control of whom?
Have we allowed the very positive technology of our age to invade our personal lives and to make silence all the more difficult, if not impossible.
The Need for Silence
My friends, we need some silence in our lives for it is out of silence we can be constructive and not destructive. We can be insightful and not chattering.
Out of silence, we can listen and not just dominate conversations. We can be focused on the other person and not just on ourselves.
Through our silence, God can be creative today in me, just as he was at the moment of creation. God can enter the world today, just as he did at the moment of the Incarnation.
I do not know what is possible for you, in your life situation, but I do ask you to be challenged with this idea of silence and its importance, to wrestle with it, to take it to heart.
It is so essential for us as persons and for our relationship with God and with each other.
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