“The mark of solitude is silence, as speech is the mark of community. Silence and speech have the same inner correspondence and difference as do solitude and community. One does not exist without the other. Right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech.”
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1954. (original German pub in 1939), page 78.
“I am sad to see how much we abuse the Holy Spirit. In their imagination and in disregard of the will that intends that we be one, some men, on their own initiative, create their own churches, their own theologies, and their own beliefs, which in fact are only petty subjective opinions. The Holy Spirit has no opinions. He only repeats what Christ taught us in order to lead to the whole truth.
“I say this in all seriousness: The absence of the Holy Spirit in the Church creates all the divisions. Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God. Where the Spirit is, there is the Church.” Thought 213. (p. 111)
Sarah, Robert Cardinal with Nicolas Diat. The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise. With an Afterword by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Translated by Michael J. Miller. [including some conversation with Dom Dysmas de Lassus, the Father General of the Carthusian Order at Grande Chartreuse.] San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2017.
“These Christian themes of ‘life in Christ’ and ‘unity in Christ’ are familiar enough, but one feels that today they are not understood in all their spiritual depth Their mystical implications are seldom explored. We dwell rather, with much greater interest, on their social, economic, and ethical implications.” (p. 54)
Merton, Thomas. “The Recovery of Paradise.” (1959) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013.
“Let us do as the prophet says: ‘I have said: I will keep my ways so that I will not offend with my tongue. I have guarded my speech. I have held my peace and humbled myself and was silent, even from speaking good things’ (Ps. 39:1-2). Here the prophet demonstrates that if we are not to speak of good things, for the sake of silence, it is even more vital that we should not speak of evil lest we sin, for we shall be punished for that as a sin. No matter how perfect the disciple, nor how good and pious his speech he rarely should be given permission to speak for: ‘In much speaking, you shall not escape sin’ (Prov. 10:19). The master should speak and teach, the disciple should quietly listen and learn. No matter what must be asked of a superior, it must be done with humility and reverent submission. We always condemn and ban all small talk and jokes; no disciple shall speak such things.”
Saint Benedict. The Rule of St. Benedict. Translated, with introduction and notes by Anthony C. Meisel and M.L. del Mastro. NY : Doubleday, 1975, page 56.
Note: This is the whole 6th chapter; but not the only thing Benedict says about Silence in his Rule. He would today have included some proscriptions about social media, I’m sure. Including, no doubt, blogs that quote the Rule.
His condemnation here of levity probably strikes us as too harsh. But haven’t you noticed that so much of what passes for comedy and joking is done at the expense of someone else? It can really hurt and isn’t necessarily assuaged with an “Oh, I was only joking.”
“Now in individual cases, it may be that they say something that we find very hard to accept because of our own earnest convictions. Here we must rethink our own positions in the light of what authority has said and, if possible, try to see the reasons why authority has spoken as it did, the presumption being that they had good reasons to do it. However, it may be that with the best will in the world we cannot really convince ourselves that this is right. And if so, we are inevitably thrown into a position of dissent. But I think we must be modest about it and realize that our own opinion is not necessarily the last word. Maybe somebody is wiser than we are. And maybe the church has a wisdom from which we have to learn. So we shouldn’t constitute ourselves as a kind of alternate magisterium.”
Dulles, Avery Cardinal. “Reason, Faith and Theology.” Interviewer: James Martin, SJ. America. 5 March 2001 issue. Viewed online 12 December 2015 at http://americamagazine.org/issue/338/article/reason-faith-and-theology
I’ve heard two phrases that everyone should have at the ready. One is “I could be wrong” (as above). And the other is “I guess I don’t see it that way.”
The way of humility is paved with phrases like these, not with clinchers, or closers, or zingers, not with shutting down the opposition, or winning at any cost.
“First of all, we have to listen to one another and sit down and talk together in a civil spirit. I regret the way in which some go off in a sectarian way within the church and make their own little home in one wing or the other and become either liberal Catholic reformist types or truly adamant conservatives. Then they just tend to shoot across at one another from their trenches. This is not a healthy thing within the church. We have to cultivate the spirit of unity among Catholics and to try to understand one another’s point of view and learn from one another. This would be my hope.”
Avery Cardinal Dulles. “Reason, Faith and Theology.” Interviewer: James Martin, SJ. America. 5 March 2001 issue. Viewed online 12 December 2015 at http://americamagazine.org/issue/338/article/reason-faith-and-theology
Note: There has to be a better way to live together, says Cardinal Dulles, than in constant sniping, argument, and disagreement. Especially within the Church. You’d think this would be obvious to people whose Leader once prayed to His heavenly Father “that they may be one, as we are one.”
On the other hand, if your first move is to define the other folk out of the Church because they think/say/do something you think they shouldn’t, then I guess you feel like you aren’t violating the Savior’s prayer intention. Not a smart strategy. And you’ll have further to go to get to the point I want to see: cultivating the spirit of unity among all Christians (and not just the Catholics).
“Good Catholics embrace dialogue; it is only our latter-day cafeteria Catholics who think they can omit dialogue from their theology, piety and practice.”
Clooney, Francis X. “Compassion and Dialogue Shall Embrace” America Magazine 27 November 2015 < no page number as it was found online >
Catholics, yes. But also Lutherans. And, really, everyone. Without dialogue what we’re left with is stony-faced, rigid wall-building, or a simmering misunderstanding set to boil over at the slightest provocation. Let’s not omit dialogue.
Note:
Living as a hermit but in the world is not impossible. One can live in the hermit’s cell within. John Michael Talbot catches the way this can work for those of us whose station in life requires us to be ‘out and about.’ We can still live the hermit’s spiritual life of reclusion. He calls this being a semi-hermit.
Quote:
“So how does semi-eremitism apply to you? In more ways than you might think.
“On a weekly basis you might go to church only on Sundays and holy days. At the very most you might have one other day or evening dedicated to the work of the church. But all through the rest of the week you choose to find your own rhythm between solitude and communion in the family and the work place. You learn this from studying, praying, and practicing. You cultivate the hermit within. You meditate. You cultivate awareness of your relationship to God and all creation. You trust that you cannot wrong. Your inner voice is the voice of the Holy Spirit.” (pages 57-58)
Source: Talbot, John Michael. The World is My Cloister: Living From the Hermit Within. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010.
Note:
The relationship analogy can be a strong and useful one. And it would be stronger and more useful if our own human relationships were more Christlike. Still, our poor relationships with other people can teach us that our relationship with God is weak and poor if we treat it the same way. I hope, too, that even people who have never been in a fulfilling personal relationship with another person can at least imagine what it could be like and how it could become stronger and richer over time.
Quote:
“Relationships develop when people spend time together. Spending time with God ought to be the essence of prayer. However, as it is usually practiced, prayer is more like a series of email or instant messages than hanging out together. Often it involves more talking than listening. It should not be a surprise that the result is a superficial relationship.” (p. 37)
Source: Benner, David G. The Gift of Being Yourself. Expanded ed. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books, 2015.
Note:
Not only does Bonhoeffer tie silence and solitude together, but he also connects silence to speech. About solitude and community, remember, he said you can’t safely have one without the other; so here he would say ‘Let him who cannot be silent beware of speech. Let him who is not speaking beware of being silent.’
Quote:
“The mark of solitude is silence, as speech is the mark of community. Silence and speech have the same inner correspondence and difference as do solitude and community. One does not exist without the other. Right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech.”
Source: Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1954, page 78. (original German pub in 1939)
Pathology: the Study of a Path 