The Sound of Silence

Simon and Garfunkel were a popular duo back in the sixties. Among their many hits was the song The Sound of Silence. This song has a beautiful melody but communicates a sad message. It speaks of the kind of silence that negates and creates distance from others. It is a kind of silence that is more deafening to hear than the Babel of words media bombard us with.

I think silence (on the positive side) is becoming a precious commodity these days. I suddenly realized there is so much noise around us.

You see, we live right in the heart of the city. For almost twenty-four hours a day the sounds of cars and jeepneys passing by are unabated. It is not unusual to hear loud music from the karaokes of fast food centers in the vicinity even at early dawn, (the time when I am mostly at a dreaming state because of the chilly draft that enters my window.) Often times I am jolted from my sleep not only by this loud music but also by other noises, such as a shouting match between a drunken husband and his wife or a group of drunks talking on top of their lungs.

I guess noise is one of the consequences of modern living and the development of technology. Noise… words… engulf us and tend to overcome us. We become lost meeting the demands of our day to day activities. It’s becoming difficult to listen and reflect especially if the noise that we encounter not only comes from without but also within us.

The season of Advent is a fitting time to allow the value of silence to sink deep into our hearts. In a world that is lost in a sea of words and deafening noises it is good to let silence invade our whole being. But let this not be a silence that negate or alienate others but rather a fruitful silence that forms and sustains friendships – a silence that leads to understanding and communion. There cannot be more tragic than to live in a kind of silence that isolate us from the rest of the world. That’s precisely what the song The Sound of Silence means:

In a restless world I walked alone
On narrow street of cobbled stones…
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people may be more

People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
…within the sound of silence.

I am reminded of this song especially in this season of Advent. This period of waiting for the coming of Jesus is a period where silence plays an important part. But let it be a silence that sustains reflection and generates action. For it is in the silence of our hearts that we are able to hear the voice of the Lord communicating to us his love.