Food for thought from the booklet, “A Thought A Day.”
Silence is gold
There are two kinds of silence that are profitable to human beings. The first is the silence of aloneness; the second is the silence that means refraining from saying wrong things in the presence of others. What is called the silence of aloneness should really be the atmosphere of awareness and of conversation with God. The power of speaking with fellow human beings is a wonderful gift of God; its use provides many of the greatest comforts and joys that a human being can know. But it can also become a barrier to the highest form of conversation, viz., that with God.
Those who resent and resist the necessity of silence usually know and think little about God; usually, too, they are abusers of the power of speech. As we must render an account of every idle word, so we must of our idle silence.
Silence is strength
Solitude is the land of all great men and silence is their language. In a serene silence, strength and vigor are augmented, and a man is more fit to reflect upon himself his needs, the joys of his heavenly home, the wisdom and power of goodness of God, his Heavenly Father.
This solitude must be chiefly interior, that of the mind more than of the place — by disengaging ourselves from business worries and worldly cares, by freeing ourselves from all good things that disturb the serenity of our souls. “A Christian,” says Alban Butler, “who lives in the world practices this retirement by not loving its spirit and wisdom, by being as recollected as he may be in the midst of business, and by bearing always in mind that salvation is the most important and only affair; by shunning superfluous amusements and idleness; and by consecrating some time every day, and a considerable part of Sundays and great festivals, to public and private prayer, self-examination, meditation and spiritual reading.”
A Christian is an imitator of Christ, who often retired “himself alone” into a lonely place to pray. To be Christ’s faithful imitators and God’s devoted children, we must withdraw at least in spirit from that world which is at war unto death with God.
Timed silence
“There is a time for silence and a time to speak,” is an ancient scriptural adage. Out of it a very definite test of character may be drawn, because it is possible for a person to manifest, by the use of silence, a whole host of vices, such as cowardice, human respect, ambition, avarice, etc. Silence becomes a mark of weakness of character and a cover-up for some vice when it is resorted to in the presence of two combined circumstances: 1) when there is some kind of obligation to speak, and 2) when there is some kind of personal or selfish gain to be achieved by not speaking.
There are many occasions in every person’s life when these two circumstances come together and he is tested in his ability to put a higher value on conscience and obligation than on personal achievement. God is more often left undone by silence, than is harm done by imprudent speech.