The noise and frolicking of summer is behind me. The harvest and canning is stacked on storage shelves. The frantic pace of trying to get everything outside done before the ground freezes and nasty weather sets in has exhausted me. “Black Friday” and “Cyberspace Monday” have assailed me. Then, along comes Advent inviting me to slow down, take a breath, and remember Christ is coming.

“For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all powerful word leaped from heaven from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed….” Wisdom 18:14-15

Advent is a time to prepare for the second coming of Jesus, who leaps down into the darkness of night. We are challenged to prepare for His coming in silence and reflection; to be embraced by and to embrace silence.

Why? God always speaks in silence; His language is silence; He works in silence. He directs His words and actions to our heart, the place of encounter. To be silent before God is to be absolutely available to Him. It is within the silence of our hearts where we are transformed; our heart grafted to His; our thoughts one with His thoughts. Silence is sacred because silence is God’s dwelling place and He writes in silence on the solitude of the human heart.

Silence is a very challenging thing and frightens the heck out of most of us. To seek God in silence is way over the top for most people. Robert Cardinal Sarah in his book The Power of Silence speaks of the dictatorship of noise. He says that modern man can no longer do without this dictator. Man avoids silence because he is afraid of facing himself and what he might find. He fears encountering God and what He might say to him. To avoid this fearful encounter, man builds a false security with permanent background noise and activity. We no longer hear God because we are constantly speaking, constantly seeking information on electronic devices, constantly filling every waking hour with noise.

Cardinal Sarah says “Noise is a deceptive, addictive, and false tranquilizer….This age detests the things that silence brings us to: encounter, wonder, and kneeling before God….In killing silence, man assassinates God.” Noise, the Cardinal says, is the “desecration of the soul, the silent ruin of the interior life.” [1]

It is into this land of noise and doom that Jesus, the Word, leaps down from heaven, and in the silence of the womb of the Virgin is conceived, and in the silence of the stable, born. The Cardinal says, “From silence is born silence. Through God the silent, we can attain silence.” Advent is an invitation for us to slow down; be still, and enter into His silence. May Jesus be born anew in the silent stable of your heart this Advent and Christmas season.

[1] Cardinal Sarah, Robert, “The Power of Silence”, Ignatius Press, 2017, pgs. 56-57

For Reflection:
Advent invites us to enter into the silence of God and to be alone with Him. How does this frighten me? How does silence unnerve or challenge me? How can I use the Advent season to prepare my heart for the silent encounter with God?

Prayer:
Jesus, Your birth in the messiness of a stable, in the silence of night, is not mere sentiment but an invitation to enter into the mystery of silence and Your birth. Help me to embrace this silence that I may truly prepare for Your second coming anew in my life this Christmas.

(Blogged December 1, 2023)
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