Finding Charity (Love) in Silence

Have you ever stopped to think how much noise there is around us? I’m not just talking about words-spoken and heard. The sound of traffic, sirens, and even the noise of the phones and conversations around us is a form of noise. We become immune to the drone and don’t consciously hear it. On an even more subconscious level there is the electronic hum that pervades our lives. If you have ever had a power outage, one of the first things you notice is the quiet. The hum of the refrigerator and the lights is suddenly absent, even though you never really hear it on a day-to-day basis.

There is visual noise, too. Signs and poles and antennas and buildings are just a few things that distract our eyes. When you drive out in the country or into the mountains, suddenly the occasional power pole or cell phone antenna seems out of place and distracting. Even the wind farms springing up to provide power, are a visual distraction to the beauty of the open spaces.

Smells can create yet another kind of noise in our lives. Have you ever been in traffic beside a diesel truck and found yourself gagging? Or walked past someone drenched in perfume? Even good scents like a bakery or flower shop can create sensory overload. After working in a bakery, I found that I did not desire sweet things because of being surrounded by the smell of sugary things all day. The same is true for our souls when we are overloaded by all the 'noise' around us. We can become desensitized to the call of God in the silence.

Nouwen asks, “How [do we] practice a ministry of silence in which our word has the power to represent the fullness of God’s silence…to make our ministry one that leads our people into the silence of God?” He admits, “Silence has become a very fearful thing…empty and hollow…a gaping abyss which can swallow [us] up.” Nouwen suggests that there is a “converted silence” in which we can encounter the God of Love.

Simon Garfunkle’s song Sounds of Silence reminds us that amid the noise of “People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening” there is a silence that speaks truth. “The words of the prophets are…whispered in the sounds of silence.”

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains
Within the sound of silence


In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence


"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence


And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence

What are some of those prophetic words? Maybe not the ones Garfunkle says are 'written on subway walls and tenemant halls, but the real prophetic words that all speak of a God who loves us immeasurably. Real prophets call us to share that love in return with one another and with God.

Jesus himself quoted Isaiah 61 as the definition of his ministry (and ours as his followers) “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.”

The Spirit of the Lord, as we saw last time, is the inner fire to be guarded and nurtured in silence so that it can make us truly whole. When that happens we understand more fully Isaiah 12:2, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.”

It is true that we are surrounded by the “neon gods” Garfunkle sings of. With and through the Spirit we can speak “words that I might teach you” and hold out “arms that I might reach you.” It is not an easy calling. When we feel overwhelmed by the noise and needs around, Paul’s words to the Corinthians are encouraging. He is talking about the ‘thorn in his flesh’, but is true of any concern or fear we have. “Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” (2 Cor. 12:8-10)

To share in that grace, love, and power we have to be OPEN to God. Nouwen says finding our center in the silence of God means coming “away from the fragmenting and distracting wordiness of the world to that silence in which we can discover ourselves, each other, and God…Silence is primarily a quality of the heart that leads to ever growing charity (love).”

Every person has the Spirit within—for some it is slumbering and unknown, for others it is alive and burning, for many it is acknowledged and ignored. Certainly the Spirit is not something we can contain or control, but we can learn to be open to the Spirit through our practice of solitude, silence, and (as we will explore next week) our prayer.