‘The best and most wonderful thing you can achieve in this life is to be silent and let God act and speak’ (Master Eckhart).
Silence has value and greatness in itself, as long as it is not the silence that can arise from anxiety and fear of man. By knowing how to be silent, by resisting the tendency to communicate and comment on everything, we learn to accept circumstances as they are, to ponder them more deeply and to face them with greater reflection. In this way, we escape the dynamism of a fast-paced world, which brings with it too much restlessness and a logic of ‘action-reaction’ in which we act hastily. As the apostle James advises: “Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (Jas 1:19)
Master Eckhart goes even further in his reflections, wanting above all else for the Heavenly Father to find a place within us. We remain silent so that God can communicate with us and we can better identify His voice. We remain silent so that God can communicate not only with us, but also with others through us. The more we restrain our human impulse to speak, the more God can permeate us. Then our words and actions are illuminated by his light.
It will be a joy for our Father to find us in this attitude of listening. Just as in human relationships it is much easier for us to communicate when the other person really listens to what we want to say and does not constantly interrupt us with comments that distract us from the subject, so it is with God. When He finds a soul that listens to Him, it is easy for Him to instruct it, guide it and establish His work of love through it in the world.