Communicating in silence

THIS IS VERY INTERESTING: Silenceisanintegralelementofcommunication;inits absence,wordsrichincontentcannotexist.Insilence,wearebetterabletolistentoandunderstandourselves.

My guess is that only the first four capitalized words got your attention. You might have sincerely tried to make some sense out of the garbled sentence, but you must have exerted more effort putting in the missing spaces to recompose it mentally. Or you must have simply jumped to this paragraph because you’d rather find out what I’m trying to say.

Obviously, it’s my way of emphasizing how we often take for granted the spaces between words. We don’t read them but they definitely make it easier for us to make sense of what we read. Something similar happens when one tries to play a musical score. The spaces or pauses between notes are necessary not only to make the music playable but also to give it a particular expression.

In our daily conversations, too, it would be extremely difficult—even if they say some people are capable of doing so—for a sincere and fruitful exchange of ideas if both parties were to talk at the same time. In all these forms of communication and expression, the element of silence—expressed in spaces, pauses and listening—is indispensable.

In his message on the occasion of the recent 46th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI said: “Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves.”

Interestingly, the Holy Father points out how technology now allows humanity to globally communicate and express itself in ways unimagined in the past. These, he observes, stem from questions in search of answers through the Internet’s many social networks and search engines. He, however, stresses that there is a need to focus—as some individuals are gradually opening themselves to—upon the questions that are vital to human existence.

In God and World, the Holy Father warns that this technological capacity of man somewhat relives the story of Babel. “In Babel, both the unity of mankind and the temptation to become like God, and to reach up to his height, are linked solely with technical ability. But unity on this basis, we are being told here, will not hold and leads to confusion . . . Any deeper communication between people is being lost now if it cannot be produced and imparted by these superficial outward forms of relationship and by having mastery of the same technical apparatus. Man is far more profound. If he is united with others merely on this superficial level, at the deeper level within, he will rebel against this uniformity, because he unconsciously recognizes that it reduces him to slavery.”

He concludes: “We can say that the story of the Tower of Babel takes a critical view of a certain way of uniting the ways in which man arranges his life and his world, a way that achieves only apparent unity and only seems to make man greater. In reality, it robs him of his depth and of his greatness. Besides this, it makes him dangerous, because, on the one hand, he has great power, but, on the other, his moral capacity lags behind his technical capacity. Moral strength has not grown in correspondence with the power to make or destroy things that man now has.”

This is why Benedict emphasizes the need to rediscover the role of silence in a world engulfed by increasing technological modes of communication. Otherwise, “it can lead, on the one hand, to complete depersonalization. Then one is just swimming in a sea of communication and no longer encounters persons at all. But, on the other hand, it can also be an opportunity. For instance, to become aware of one another, to encounter one another, to help each other, to go out of ourselves.” (Light of the World)

He further teaches that we can discover the role of silence above all in our relationship with God. He speaks to us in silence and it is only when we, too, learn to listen, that is, by silencing the things that distract us from God that we will hear Him. “We need that silence which becomes contemplation, which introduces us into God’s silence and brings us to the point where the Word, the redeeming Word, is born” (Homily, Eucharistic Celebration with Members of the International Theological Commission, Oct. 6, 2006).

Moreover, this silence will help us deepen our relationships and also understand the events of life more. “Silence, then, gives rise to even more active communication, requiring sensitivity and a capacity to listen that often makes manifest the true measure and nature of the relationships involved. When messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary. Deeper reflection helps us to discover the links between events that at first sight seem unconnected, to make evaluations, to analyze messages; this makes it possible to share thoughtful and relevant opinions, giving rise to an authentic body of shared knowledge.”

Finally, silence is not only a stance that man has to take in order to reflect, to understand, to form convictions and dialogue peacefully with others. It possesses an inner strength which is “the urgent sense of mission, the compelling obligation ‘to communicate that which we have seen and heard’ so that all may be in communion with God (1 Jn 1:3). Silent contemplation immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbors so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love.”