Who Gives a Hoot About Words?
Day 26
Concluding the story of his childhood and early adult life, Buechner describes a significant visit to a monastery in New York.
“…I felt unclean, uncertain, at sea, and somebody told me about this monastery in New York State on the Hudson River called the Order of the Holy Cross. I was told a wonderful priest was there who was wise and holy and who would be useful to talk to. So I went up only to discover that this priest that I'd gone to see had taken a special vow of silence and could not be talked to or even seen. Sort of like the church was locked. And the guest master, the old monk who was there to deal with guests like me, was available but he'd had a stroke. He couldn't speak in a way that I could understand. Talk about parables! So what I found in that monastery was not what I had gone to find, which were answers to my questions, I suppose. What I found instead was silence, which in a way was much better because if I'd found the answers to my questions, whatever my questions were, I would have only come away with a few answers that I would’ve forgotten just as completely as I’ve forgotten the names of the people who might’ve given them to me.
“Words. Who gives a hoot about words? Like Job asking God, "Why do things happen to a man like me, these terrible things, my children dead, my cattle gone?" Supposing God had said, "Look, Job, I'll tell you, here's why it happened..." So what? Would that have helped Job? Of course not. What Job needed was what he got, which was the vision of God himself. "I had heard of you by the hearing of my ears; now mine eyes have beheld thee." That was the answer that was without words. So in a funny way I didn't get the answer, but I got silence, the sense of mystery, the sense of holiness.”
Frederick Buechner, The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, pp80-81.
To help you reflect…
When has silence been a gift to you?
And/or…
When has an answer come without words?
