Silence is God’s First Language: Thoughts on St. Joseph
“Be still and know that I am God.” -Psalm 46:10
“Silence is God’s first language.” -St. John of the Cross
When someone comes up to me and says, “God told me to do such and such,” if I’m being honest, I typically ignore them. Is this because I am a modernist who doesn’t believe in miracles? No. Typically those who tell me they have heard God’s voice seem to be a little too casual about the creator of the universe stopping by for a chat with them. They are telling me that God spoke to them with the same intensity as when their neighbor told them to come over and get their dogs droppings off their lawn. Perhaps they are blessed all people in my generation that they should receive a visitation, who knows? But I don’t get a sense of the fear and awe of God or his messengers that we see in the Bible or in the history of the Church.
But this naturally leads to the question, how do we hear God’s voice? Is it audible or visual? How do we know if God is speaking to us? These questions are hard to answer. God speaks to us through means. Language is a means. People are means. We know God speaks to us through his eternal Word, Jesus Christ and in the record we have of him — the Holy Scriptures. Whatever means we hope to hear God speak to us we first need to block out the noise we are living in and enter into the eternal silence of God. Yes, to hear God speak, we need to be able to listen and to be able to listen, we need to shut off the noise.
You might be thinking, what noise? This is our first problem. We do not realize how noisy our lives are until we enter silence. Have you ever been camping out in the desert or in the mountains very far from any roads or civilization? I always immediately notice how silent it is. No background noise, no street clatter, no radio, no ringtones, just silence. The first time I went to St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo I stepped out of my car into total silence. Wow. I didn’t know that my suburban life was so loud!
Exterior noise intensifies interior noise and exterior silence helps bring about interior silence. But even if we are able to block out all the noises outside of us, we may still have a noisy heart. We must train our interior lives for silence; it cannot happen on demand. Just like running a race, it takes preparation in our time to enter into silence.
Exterior noise intensifies interior noise and exterior silence helps bring about interior silence.
In the first part of the Gospel of Matthew, we see the Word of God come to Joseph in a dream, much like his namesake who would become the Prince of Egypt from Genesis. This is also known as the Annunciation to Joseph where he is told that his wife is carrying a child whose conception is the Holy Ghost. In the ancient world, your betrothed was considered your spouse even if the marriage had not been consummated yet. We’ve heard this story so much we don’t see the scandal in it. Joseph has just been told that his espoused wife is pregnant and he is not the father. Unlike St. Mary, St. Joseph does not break out in song. He does not say, “All generations shall call me blessed!” Perhaps Joseph is thinking, “If this is how God talks to me, I don’t want to hear the Word of God!” Lest the reader think that Mary is a scandalous woman and cannot be used of God, we are told in the genealogy of other seemingly scandalouswomen — namely Rahab and Bathsheba.
The narrative goes on to portray Joseph as a man full of justice and mercy. Being just, he was going to give his wife a certificate of divorce, but being merciful, he was going to do it quietly and not make her a public disgrace. There are much conjecture and tradition surrounding Joseph, but this morning I want to focus on how Joseph heard the voice of God and listened.
For us to be able to hear and listen to God’s voice we must be in a place where this is possible. We cannot be full of external and internal noise. We must have what has been called a Listening Heart. Joseph had a listening heart, and this heart obeys even when it does not understand. When we wait too long to obey or take action doubt fills our minds. When we wait even longer to do what God requires of us, our hearts become hard. Joseph’s heart was trained to be receptive and he took action immediately.
For us to be able to hear and listen to God’s voice we must be in a place where this is possible. We cannot be full of external and internal noise. We must have what has been called a Listening Heart.
A heart that is attuned to listening to God is always about the business of cultivating the presence of God. In other words, to hear God we must be in step with God, or as St. Paul says, to be “in step with the Spirit.” St. Joseph was not only just and merciful, but he was devout. Luke’s Gospel tells us that each year he took his family to Jerusalem for the Passover. This was not as simple as coming to a church on Christmas or Easter. This required serious commitment and was not something for the casual observer. These serious commitments to God do pay out dividends, but typically not overnight, they are for the long road of life.
Spiritual exercises much like physical exercises do not show their full power until a time of testing or trial. This does not mean we ease up on them when things are easy. We should view the times of peace as times of preparation. While St. Joseph was still a young father, he was put to the test. King Herod heard that there was a New King born and he sought to have all the children killed, 2 and under. Being in step with the Spirit, St. Joseph heard the Word of God in a dream, took and fled to Egypt as commanded. A swift obedience is often the result of years of trust and training.
A swift obedience is often the result of years of trust and training.
As we begin a new calendar year, many of us are thinking about how to improve certain areas of our life. It is important to have role models, guides, and heroes, and today, I am giving you St. Joseph as a hero. We typically don’t think much about St. Joseph, and if we do, we admire him as a faithful carpenter whose primary role was being a backdrop for the Blessed Virgin and Holy Child. But our tradition remembers all three individually and collectively. St. Joseph leads the holy family with faithfulness through various storms and trials making it possible for Jesus to grow to maturity and enter into his ministry.
When we think of St. Joseph the carpenter, let us remember that God’s messengers spoke to him out of silence and stillness — in the place of dreams and of rest — and not in the place of action and busyness. This does not mean Joseph was lazy and just sat around. In fact, he was a hard worker who used his hands as a carpenter, but he also knew how to “be still and know the voice of God.”
