The Importance of Silence

When Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, received the news in the Holy of Holies that his wife, Elizabeth, although past the age of childbearing, was to have a son, his disbelief imposed a forced muteness upon him until the child was born and called John. (Lk 1: 5-25). Understandably in shock at the news, he might justify his "loss of words" as we find it happening to us at some startling announcement, but this silence persisted and gave Zechariah a chance to ponder the working of God and the plan he had laid out for this child of promise. Cardinal Robert Sarah, noted theologian, points out that "In silence, not in the turmoil and noise, God enters into the innermost depths of our being....God's being has always been present in us in an absolute silence. And a human being's own silence allows him to enter into a relationship with the Word that is at the bottom of his heart.  Thus, in the desert, we do not speak. We listen in silence; man enters into a silence that is God....Silence is not an absence.  On the contrary, it is the manifestation of a presence, the most intense of all presences."  (Magnificat, December p. 288). In his imposed silence, Zechariah found God  We have been seeking ways to prepare for Christmas during this Advent.  Let silence be one of them. There is still time.
Bro. Rene