In the Christmas rush, make time for silence

RESEARCHERS DOING A study of the music industry counted the number of recordings and sales and found that the most famous Christmas carol of all time is Silent Night. The lyrics were originally written in German and then translated into many languages, including some African tongues. You will find it recorded by church choirs.

But you will also find it recorded by pop artistes and rock stars. Silent Night is more popular than Jingle Bells, Joy to the World and O Holy Night. In fact, according to TIME magazine, it has been recorded nearly twice as many times as any other Christmas carol ever performed.

There’s something about the peaceful melody that puts you at ease. Perhaps everyone all over the world can identify with this carol readily because it gives them a sense of what it must have been like on the night Jesus was born in the stable. I suspect that people also like it because it speaks to them about something they need and don’t have.

Many religious leaders have spoken of this need for peace. Even politicians often come back to this theme in their speeches. It’s a sign of how little peace we feel in our hearts. With all the noise in our lives, we crave silence. Noise is so commonplace that we may not remember what silence is like. We feel attracted to the manger where the Baby Jesus lies because there we find peace.

A friend of mine once had to care for a group of teenagers from the city, taking them to a camp upcountry. When they went to bed the first night, the boys all huddled together, terrified. They had never been out of the slum. For their entire lives, day and night, they had been imprisoned in an urban echo chamber. Their ears and minds were pounded by relentless racket from pubs, discos, lorries, vendors, matatus, churches, mosques, plus televisions and radios. Silence was so new to those boys that they had trouble going to sleep.

If your own life has been a little too noisy, take some time during these Christmas holidays to close your eyes in a quiet place. Don’t try to fill your mind with words. Just listen to the silence. Imagine yourself transported in time to the stable where the Son of God was born. Look at the Baby Jesus in the arms of his mother.

One of the saints described the experience this way: “I am Joseph’s little servant. How good Joseph is! He treats me like a son. He even forgives me if I take the Child in my arms and spend hour after hour saying sweet and loving things to him.”