The Contribution of Silence

To choose to throw away what history can teach us is such a loss.  It is not only a loss because of the old and oft stated truth that those those who ignore history, relive it, but it is even more a loss because of the way it diminishes our life.  No matter how old a truth, if it was truly truth, it will still bring truth to the present.  Back in the fourth century there were saints who lived hermit like lives in the deserts of Egypt and the middle east.  Strangely enough, they went to the desert when the Emperor declared himself a Christian and the world officially became Christian.  They were a breed of men bent on living with heart purity and love for God.   

In his book, "The Wisdom of the Desert," Thomas Merton wrote, "Society was regarded...as a shipwreck from which each single individual man or woman had to swim for his life...These were men (the Desert Fathers) who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster."  What makes these men of the desert so unusual is that despite their view of the society around them, their contribution was not a loud voice, or judgment against those entrenched in power, or participation in political debate, but the silence of the desert.  

Merton wrote, "In all this noise, the desert had no contribution to offer but a discreet and detached silence."  In such a place and with such a spirit these Desert Fathers lived.  In this day of acrimonious political debate and religious differences that make no difference in swinging the pendulum one way or the other; perhaps, the contribution of a silence filled with thoughtful prayers and respect for all people would make a difference.  It does sound far fetched, but then, maybe, we have never really tried it.