I learned that silence can be loud too

I agree that Christmas 2006 has been very unlike the previous Christmas celebrations I had. First of all, this has been the first Christmas where I no longer have a parent to greet “Merry Christmas” to. Second, there has been a drastic change in my work schedule that I could no longer enjoy the usual two-week vacation at the end of the year nor complete the 9 days dawn novena mass before Christmas. Picture this: my work in a non-government organization requires me to finish an overdue annual report and a project proposal; my work in a call center requires that I achieve all the standards that include customer satisfaction (CSAT), low average handling time (AHT), good sales output and several others; my work in the life insurance business requires that I achieve the required number of policies sold as well as first year premiums (FYP) and first year commissions (FYC). Despite all of these, however, I learned to appreciate the little beautiful things I experienced and learned during this year’s Christmas celebration.

One of the things I learned (and I think one which will become the basis of my 2007 new year’s resolution) is that silence can be loud – that silence can have more impact than all the words combined. I had only the privilege of attending the first two days of the Christmas novena mass and on the 2nd day, the gospel reading was about how the Virgin Mary came to have a child and how St. Joseph aborted his plan of divorcing her (Matthew 1:18-25). I thought it was just a very common gospel narrative since I am already very familiar with it having read at least once for the past twenty-two years. But the celebrant, an Irish priest who is now very fluent in Cebuano, expounded it in such a manner that I glimpsed fresh insights which I would not otherwise learn by just simply re-reading the story. He began by asking how many words of St. Joseph was recorded in the Bible. The answer is “none” – that’s correct, not a word. But see how great his contribution is in making God’s plan of salvation come to pass. All it took was a heart willing to obey God’s direction and some silence – just as Mary “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 and Luke 2:51)

I have been thinking about these thoughts for the past few weeks already. At the end of the year 2006, I recall how numerous my plans were at the start of the year yet how few I have accomplished. The said gospel reading reminds me how important it is to take time to be silent to be able to hear God’s directions … and then to obey them. I remember my former officemate in Bohol, Anabelle Reyes, who said “mag-sabbatical ko karong tuiga.” I think that is what I just need for the coming year – to take time to rest and to trust God to do the rest. As the psalmist said, “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the Lord guard the city, in vain does the guard keep watch.” (Psalm 127:1)

Towards the end my college years, three of my friends and I made a pact that we should each have written a book by the time we are thirty. Until now, I haven’t written a line as yet. I believe though that I will be able to do so in the near future. But then again, it’s not at all important how many words you’ve written but how your action spoke them. As the saying goes, “action speaks louder than words.” Mary Baker Eddy, one of my favorite authors, had her own version of this saying. She said, “Action expresses more gratitude than speech.”

I am looking forward to more of these simple truths to unravel in the next following days for “[d]ay unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” (Psalm 19:2, KJV). And one of my New Year’s resolutions would be to no longer to wait for the next New Year to start applying these truths out, but to act on them as soon as they are manifested and understood. Our commentaries about these truths are of very little value – what is important is whether or not we applied them and then how many of our brothers and sisters were benefited by them.