The Power of Hush

During our drama group retreat last month, we underwent a meditation exercise that required a half an hour of focused silence. Most of us hadn’t done anything like that in a long, long time – if ever.

It was amazing how many people had a spiritual break through from that exercise.

I guess it makes sense – we tend to spend a lot of time in prayer, asking G-d questions from “Why did this happen” to “Can I get me some of that?” But it seems many of us forget that prayer is conversation, and one can’t hear an answer if one doesn’t shut up long enough to let the other guy talk.

And even in our occasional moments of silence, the noise that fills our heads prevents true silence, true listening.

Unless we take on the discipline of focused hearing. (“He who has ears to hear…”)

Which brings me to an interesting television trend: introducing characters that do not speak for the first half of a season, and then when they do talk turn out to be spokesmen for G-d. (Okay, only two instances, but I still see a trend in it.)

First we had Mr. Eko on Lost; and now Haitian on Heroes. (I haven’t seen this weeks Heroes ep yet, so if anything in it counters what I am about to say, I’m sending the Haitian to make you forget this week’s ep…)

Both big, both black, both scary powerful dudes – made all the scarier by their ability to keep their silence. And when Haitian finally spoke, it took only one episode before he started talking about G-d giving abilities.

At first I thought it was an easy out – make the quiet guy be the one that believes in G-d, because it is easier to not say something controversial if one hardly says anything. But I quickly realized that the silent approach is pure wisdom from Kring (and Lieber & Lindelof).

Who better to speak of G-d then the few in this crazy world quiet enough to hear him? Who else has the authority, the right, the authenticity?

Seriously, spend some time channel surfing, from religious cable to news to made-for-tv movie, and ask yourself if we wouldn’t all be better off having the quiet ones discussing the deity, rather than the spewers.

That applies to those for and those against the Creator.

As St. Francis said, “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words (only) if necessary.”

Just my thoughts,

Sean