Thought of the Day July 14, 2020 Noise deafens; silence frightens
Often
there is too much noise in our life. Unlike Elijah, we are distracted by the
various noise around us, that we can not hear the voice of the Lord. “There is
not only physical deafness, which to a great extent isolates man in social
life. There is a hearing defect in relation to God, and we suffer it especially
in our time. We are simply no longer able to hear Him; too many diverse
frequencies occupy our hearing. What is said about Him appears pre-scientific
to us and no longer seems adequate for our times. With this hearing defect, or
even with deafness towards God, naturally we also lose our ability to speak
with Him or to Him. Nevertheless, in this way we lack a decisive perception.
Our interior senses run the risk of atrophy. On lacking that perception, the
radius of our relation with reality in general becomes drastically and
dangerously limited.”(Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, September 10, 2006)
It
was in embracing silence that Elijah heard the still voice of God. Why are we
afraid of silence? Is it because we are afraid of what we may discover about
ourselves? Is it because we lack the discipline to wait upon the Lord? The
paradox we face: noise deafens us, silence frightens us. If I want to hear the
still voice of God, I need to learn how to enter into and embrace the silence.
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