The sound of silence

This, of course, is a dangerous pastime. We talk even when we have nothing to say, so we have to fabricate and embellish to the detriment of our neighbour and to the destruction of the truth.

We pride ourselves on being able to talk ourselves out of any situation, perjury is ‘normal’, once we can get away with it, and we do, and character assassination is a national pastime. While we berate our political speakers for their abuse of the Parliament and the platform, we enjoy the mauvais langue and regale one another with variations on the theme. All of this creates a toxic environment in which truth cannot flourish, and when this is the prevailing climate, our institutions and our relationships wither because there can be no trust.

Ours is still very much an oral society, and we create meanings and ultimately reality by the speech acts we routinely perform. So the names we give to persons and events define how we will relate to them. The lyrics of the music that pervades our days define how we see women, the police; decide what we consider valuable and worth giving our lives for - bling, violence; determine how we will present ourselves to the other masqueraders in the passing parade — blonde, brunette or white collar.

The events we celebrate in the media and film tell us what is important — winning, being Number 1, pulverising the opponent in the sporting arena, mashing up the place, liquidating the opposing team...observe the vocabulary of war and destructive competitiveness.

Into this darkness, we want to invite the Word, Truth Himself, to bring us freedom and inspiration, for we are also a praying people.

But as St James reminds us, we cannot use the same tongue to bless God and to curse our brother. And we suffer the effects of too much noise-deafness, and a coarsening of perception, so that the graciousness of God cannot find a receptive heart in us. Silence is the only antidote to the poison of gossip, malice and defamation. It is only if we decide to listen to the Word addressed to us in the beauty of our country, flowering in the dry season, in the generosity of simple people who forget themselves in quiet service, in the Scripture addressed to us in the liturgy and private prayer that we can begin again to appreciate silence.

It is only in this environment that we will be able to catch the resonance of the voice of God calling us to be more than we reduce ourselves to being, and find the courage to speak words that heal and renew and sweeten the days of those we meet.

We can do that, people of God. Let us take pattern from Mary, the quiet, effective woman.