Be Silent All Flesh…the Lord has roused Himself from His Holy Dwelling. (Zechariah 2:13)
Christmas, 2010
In the midst of military, political and economic chaos in all corners of this earth:
…a small businessman in Maine, grateful for his freedom, begins a movement now numbering thousands of volunteers who lay Christmas wreaths on the tombs of fallen soldiers with a moment of silent prayer.
In the midst of crowds thronging the malls and holiday parties, with the gaiety escalating to near-hysteria:
…a woman gathers her courage, and calls for silence when a child is overwhelmed by the noise and unchecked emotions swirling around him.
In the midst of beeping monitors and flashing lights required by a frightening series of medical tests:
…a gentle nurse promises to let a patient sleep in silence through the night.
In the midst of strident voices—left and right—decrying this or that current (and perhaps soon-to-be-forgotten) cultural battle:
…a 7th Century monk prays: “O Mystery exalted beyond silence, gather my mind into the silence of prayer, free from the concerns of this world.”[1]
Yes…Let all flesh be silent. For in these small pockets of silence, all too rare and fleeting, hidden away and often unnoticed—in these precious moments between breaths when we can hear our own hearts beat . . . now is the time to keep silence.
For it is only in such silence that the Holy One can rouse from His Holy Dwelling in the Heart of God, and come among us to be born in a poor stable in Bethlehem. Only in such silence can the Holy One bring strength and courage to the heart of a soldier keeping watch in the mountains of Afghanistan. Only in such silence can the touch of the Holy One comfort the heart of a little child surrounded by poverty, or despair. Only in such silence can the Holy One enter our own hearts, and find once again His own Holy Dwelling.
I do pray we will all find those moments of silence when the Lord enters His Holy Dwelling within our hearts.
Susan Creighton+
[1] Isaac of Ninevah, 7th C. Syria: in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, translated by Sebastian Brock, (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987)