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Column: Welcoming silence and clamor

By DR. MARK ROSS/Columnist

I heard about a couple not speaking to each other. The standoff went on for days with neither budging. When the man needed to catch a plane early the next morning, he placed a note beside his sleeping wife, “Please wake me when you leave for work.” He slept smugly, knowing she would be the one to break the silence. The next morning he woke late only to find a note on the nightstand. “Wake up, or you will miss your plane.”
Silence is not all bad. The prophet Habakkuk wrote, “The Lord is in his temple, let all the world be silent.” Since then, many of the faithful have lived by the premise “Silence is golden.” Certainly, quiet reflection has a place in the faith.
For that reason, I arranged to spend three days and nights at The Gethsemane Abbey. Gethsemane is a Trappist monastery in central Kentucky, made famous by a former inhabitant, Thomas Merton. Many of the monks there practice solitude and silence. I was craving silence, having grown tired of voices, most of all my own.
The personal retreat started well enough. I spent the first day reading and praying interrupted only by wonderful meals and a nap or two. Then other guests on retreat began arriving. One of the guests was a chatty priest from New York. He had obviously taken no vows of silence. Since the residents of the abbey could not speak to him, I became his target audience. It seemed wherever I went in the buildings and the grounds this man was there, and with something to say. I began to dodge him. I was at the abbey for silence. Instead, I found myself in a constant conversation.
Finally, in desperation I decided to take a walk through the many acres of forest that surrounds Gethsemane. The fallen leaves and brisk autumn weather was just what I needed. At last, I had solitude, the only sound being my own footsteps through the moist leaves in the woods.
I remember walking across a particularly peaceful clearing, thanking God for the beauty and the tranquil quiet of this hour and place. That is when the ground exploded beneath me. Until then, I did not know that during the day, deer like to sleep in warm leaves. Unfortunately, the falling foliage also provides camouflage. I did not see the deer until I was almost upon it. Then it leaped into the air covering me with wet leaves and soft dirt.
I would like to be able to say I broke into one of the psalms or a spiritual song, celebrating serendipitous moments and the beauty of God’s creatures. However, the phrase that came out of my lips appears nowhere in the Bible and is anything but religious. My only consolation was that the deer was more frightened than I was.
That was the end of my retreat. I packed my bags, having had all of the meditative silence I could stand. I rode home with the radio on at full volume, soaking up the sanity of chaos.
Yet, I have not entirely given up on silence. I think we all need some solitude, but when and where is the question. The gospels tell us that Jesus sought the lonely places. He instinctively knew the constant clamor of the crowds and the dissension of the disciples would exhaust him. However, almost without exception, the noisy needs of people around him interrupted his short retreats. “Where have you been?” They would ask him, everyone is looking for you. He sought the quiet but welcomed the people.
Maybe that is the secret. Seek the silence but embrace the clamor, knowing God can be in them both, speaking to those who listen.

Dr. Mark Ross is the pastor of Marion Baptist Church. To learn more about MBC, visit http://www.marionbaptistchurchva.com/