October 2, 2005

Silence is the absence of noise, and serenity is silence in the midst of noise. Silence is rare in a busy city, but it is possible to carry inside oneself a stillness which comes from communion with the Creator: “Be still and know that I am God.” Without serenity, noise can become an addictive camouflage for the lack of peace. Some people now can hardly survive without plugged-in music all day, and the television constantly blaring. Background music in restaurants has become foreground music, so loud that it precludes conversation. Rare is the reception without an orchestra that nearly bursts the eardrums.

The church is a sacred place and in its stillness is encounter with God. Even in the liturgy there are appointed brief periods of silence. The musician Artur Schnabel said that Mozart is played between the notes, and so in the interplay of sound and silence is true worship. The reverence of people in our church is edifying and not altogether typical. At weddings I often can tell who are visitors by their total lack of respect for the sacred. Sometimes bridesmaids at rehearsals virtually shout in the currently fashionable shrill voices that sound like Minnie Mouse on helium, and grooms­men applaud as though they were at a basketball game. More than once I have had to ring a bell to order silence.

Manners are not taught overnight, but there is etiquette in church which is an intuition of the joy of heaven, and that comes gradually through prayer, and sometimes suddenly by encounter with the sublime. Pope Benedict XVI has placed the restoration of holy sensibility at the top of his agenda. He has begun by regulating the tour guides in the Basilica of St. Peter, and imposing silence as altars are prepared for Mass. Some have remarked that the changed atmosphere of worship is palpable. Pope St. Pius X tried the same thing in his day, with temporary effect. Time will tell how this takes.

The Temple in Jerusalem was not a silent place. In fact it was raucous, with the chants and trumpets and bleating of sacrificial animals. But when all was focused on the Lord, it was symphonic in an oriental way. When men focused on themselves, Jesus told them that they had made His Father’s House a den of thieves.

The holy space in the middle of the city is an oasis, not a mirage. Life lived without serenity is the mirage. To assert the reality of Christ’s presence in the Church and to correct widespread liturgical abuses, the Pope has summoned a Synod beginning today through October 23. Much good will come of this, so that those who come into God’s House will be able to say with greater joy: “Lord it is good for us to be here.”

Fr. George W. Rutler