noise damage

Thursday, August 24, 2017

More from Cardinal Sarah on silence:

“Our world no longer hears God because it is constantly speaking, at a devastating speed and volume, in order to say nothing.” (“The Power of Silence” p. 56)

What if you or I were to remain silent, unless we had something significant to say? Something that would build up, or console, or comfort, or bring joy—not to ourselves, but to others? What if this were to happen at any gathering of individuals? Isn’t it a sad truth that when people gather casually, most of what Is said will quickly be erased as having no significance at all, and isn’t it also true that the more we speak, the more we reveal our own inadequacies, lack of coherence, or even pathology?

Great friends or even lovers develop the ability to be present to one another for long periods of time in silence. The mere presence of the other brings peace, joy, safety, contentment. But, in our world, unfortunately, the majority of people feel they have to say something to fill the silence.

I find this most distressing at daily Masses. We have just receive the Eucharist and perhaps sit in silence for a very brief instant. A concluding prayer is said, and then the dismissal, and as soon as the priest leaves the sanctuary, right at that point, most people break out in conversation. An extraordinary thing has happened! Our bodies are filled with the very Body and Blood of the Lord. And yet, we find it so difficult to simply sit in silence to savor what has just happened. What a terrible loss this is.

Cardinal Sarah writes pointedly about what it costs us to fail to resist the chatter and noise. “In this hell of noise, man disintegrates and is lost; he is broken up into countless worries, fantasies, and fears.”

Do you sometimes find the voices in your head tormenting you with worries, fantasies, and fears? Perhaps the remedy is to find a silence corner of your world and rest there, paying attention to your breath and get beneath your mind’s unnerving chatter. Steven Taylor (“The Calm Center”) offers solace to a person who has lost himself beneath the weight of noise:

“You don’t need to do anything---

you need to do nothing

to life yourself out of the noise and stress

until the fog has cleared

and your being has settled to stillness

and the connection forms itself again.” (p. 49)

God bless you!