There seem to be some people whose understandings of life, being, the cosmos and the sacred transcend any specific time period, and who also are tangibly applicable in any time period.  As I have been rereading Richard Hooker recently, I find myself wondering if he is not one of those persons.

    To refresh your Sunday School learning, Hooker is one of Anglicanism's first and arguably its foremost theologians.  It is Hooker whose description of divine revelation, how we encounter and hear the Word, produced the formula of scripture, tradition and reason and who saw all three as inherently and inseparably  linked in any spiritual practice that could hope to hear God.  His unapologetic understanding of the place of human flesh in the reception of revelation (essentially saying we can not in any way escape our inherent limitedness in hearing God and thus should neither apologize for hearing imperfectly nor presume to think we can ever hear perfectly enough to use our 'hearing' to justify banishing others), is remarkable and liberating to individuals and communities.

    And his quote about 'silence as our best eloquence..." strikes me as fundamental and life giving for moments like 9/11 and our continued consideration of the events of that day.  I believe we as Americans had a once in a generation kind of moment for epiphany in the time after 9/11 and instead of reflecting on our pain long enough to become companions with all those in the world for whom bombings are daily reality, we succumbed to a fear that has driven us to isolation of understanding and isolation from true hope.  Instead of sitting in silence with our pain, I believe we succumbed to a need to fill the silence and tried to sequester the pain.  As a nation, we had the chance to be in deepest companionship with all those who knew more regularly than us this kind of pain, and who were reaching out to us (including the then President of Iran).

    I have no quick answers to moments such as 9/11.  And I do believe we had a moment where silence rather than fear filled hubris could have brought us into a global life giving engagement with the pained through out the world.  It was an opportunity to listen to our pain and allow it to teach us that hope is found in the fruit of engaged relationship rather than force, that hope is found in connecting and not isolating.

    Perhaps we as a nation ought to observe more than periodic moments of silence.  Perhaps national days of prayer ought not to be filled with speakers and proclamations, but long periods of communal silence.  Perhaps we would find more global life if we taught our children how to be quiet rather than how to engender the fear of others.

    As I reflect upon the images of 9/11 and the countless stories, I think of the hymn, "Let all mortal flesh keep silence..."  Yes, as humans there is a time to speak, and as I listen to the airwaves, I think speaking and silence grossly out of balance.  Instead of thinking we can ever know perfectly, perhaps silence can save us.  Perhaps it can teach us what we don't know and instead of seeing that as reason for insecurity, we can see it as reason for hopeful humility- a humility that reminds us there is no life without all others, a humility that reminds there is no promised land that does not include all, a humility that drives us to forge relationship rather than think any disposable.  If we could become convinced of 'silence as our best eloquence', I wonder how our world would look.

Todd Donatelli