Benedict XVI on Silence
Yesterday for World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI rather counter-intuitively gave an address on silence.
In the spirit of the Desert Fathers, and of the monastic admonition to silence, the Pope spoke of the relationship between “silence and the word”.
No dialogue is possible without both of them.
In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth …. By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested. In this way, space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible.
That idea of “testing” is important, I think. I’ve often said that learning is best accomplished in argument, and argument is impossible without dialogue, without give and take, without both talking and listening.
But the Pope goes on to talk about the intimacy of silence. Silence is not just a pause between words.
It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love …. Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence – indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression.
Where the Pope’s message began to seriously resonate with me, however, was when he talked about silence in the sense of an antidote to the constant noise of modern life.
In our time, the internet is becoming ever more a forum for questions and answers – indeed, people today are frequently bombarded with answers to questions they have never asked and to needs of which they were unaware. If we are to recognize and focus upon the truly important questions, then silence is a precious commodity that enables us to exercise proper discernment in the face of the surcharge of stimuli and data that we receive.
But he’s just getting started, for silence is of course how God speaks most often to us…
It is hardly surprising that different religious traditions consider solitude and silence as privileged states which help people to rediscover themselves and that Truth which gives meaning to all things. The God of biblical revelation speaks also without words …. The eloquence of God’s love, lived to the point of the supreme gift, speaks in the silence of the Cross.
… and we can speak to God.
If God speaks to us even in silence, we in turn discover in silence the possibility of speaking with God and about God. …
In speaking of God’s grandeur, our language will always prove inadequate and must make space for silent contemplation. Out of such contemplation springs forth, with all its inner power, the urgent sense of mission, the compelling obligation “to communicate that which we have seen and heard” so that all may be in communion with God (1 Jn 1:3). Silent contemplation immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbours so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love.
The entire talk is worth reading and worth contemplating.
Abba Theophilus, the archbishop, came to Scetis one day. The brethren who were assembled said to Abba Pambo, “Say something to the Archbishop, so that he may be edified.”
The old man said to them, “If he is not edified by my silence, he will not be edified by my speech.”
(Sayings of the Desert Fathers)