when silence reigns

Like most Americans today I’ve got 9/11 on my mind, perhaps with an added twist of anxiety since my wife is traveling by air at this very moment eight years after the first airliner plowed into the World Trade Center. There are TV and virtual and actual commemorations galore, and memories still bubbling up seeking expression, such as a powerful L.A. Times front page article this morning from the perspective of two people who were in the Pentagon here in Washington.  There are religious commemorations by people from a multiplicity of traditions.

I keep feeling like there are, however, too many words, not too few, trying to express the reality of what happened and how it has changed our lives.  In the end, as a religious leader I am driven back to trying to hear God’s voice among all the others.  Perhaps Thomas Merton is right, that what we need most at times like this is some silence, not just a moment, but enough time not just to quit talking but to start listening; for in Merton’s words, “If we have no silence, God is not heard…” (No Man is an Island).  God can be subtle, and most times can be heard only when silence reigns. So enough words.  But I am listening.