Silence May Be Golden

Recently I had the opportunity to visit two monasteries in western France, one of which was prominent in the past (but is now only an artifact), and one of which is a working monastery. As we visited these representations of a different culture, the question came up of how people in monastic orders, particularly in which silence is kept, can find the purpose of their lives. In other words, from our American community and social context, how can monks be carrying out the work of God, particularly without the value of speech.

One can begin to establish the value of the life of a monk as being primary to their community, just as the value of any individual may be seen as related to family. With individual gifts brought to the community to earn an income the parallel exists to what each person can do to contribute to making a living and contributing to the good of the larger community. Second, there is the added value to being a part of a Christian community, keeping the hours for prayer in a day and gathering to worship and praise God often. Although many Christians find balance in once a week worship, as well as keeping an active devotional life, people in monastic orders pray for others six or seven times a day, They praise God often. Third, in silence of speech monks may very well discover the power of listening to God and find direction through their listening.

All of this can heighten our reflection of non-monastic life. Beginning with vocation, what is primary in our lives should be loving God with our heart, soul, and mind and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Both of these begin with our primary community-- our church and family—and then extends into the larger community. Ultimately, our impact in the world will be measured by the way in which we use this venue to love God and family and community. Viewing it through monastic eyes is one way of heightening our vision of life. Second, our worship of God is to be directly related to our service of God. When we say Go in peace and serve the Lord we literally mean is as an outreach of our worship. We are driven into the world for service from our worship. Although it may seem like monks in worship lose the social perspective of the larger community, what if their music, their prayer, their products, etc. contribute to the betterment of society precisely because of their focus?

Finally, the surrendering of words in many cases can remind us of how words so often play a negative role in society. We need only think of how words are used to incite anger toward others and support for others in an election cycle to see the destruction that words can work. At least silence in community can be seen to enhance relationship to God and the primary community. Also, one can only imagine the power of listening when words are used sparingly or not at all. If people in regular society would listen first and speak second, or sometimes not at all, one can begin to see the value for the community.

Although I would not want to follow the vocation of the monk, I can see the contribution that is made particularly to a developing society in Europe at an earlier time. Ultimately it reminds us that we are made for a larger community, the communion of saints, which we can only imagine includes large amounts of silence and praise.