On Not Needing to Speak
Monday of the Third Week of Lent – March 9, 2015
ANTONY tested a group that came to visit him by quoting a verse of Scripture. Beginning with the youngest, he asked each for an interpretation. They responded as well as they could, but Antony told them he did not think they understood the verse.
Finally, he turned to Abba Joseph. “How would you explain these words?” Joseph replied, “I do not know.”
Antony was elated. “Abba Joseph has found the way, because he admitted he did not know.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 2]
The tongue (words we speak) reveals what lives within us. We use words to impress others, to demonstrate how smart (or wise, or vulnerable, or humble, or eloquent, or compassionate) we are. The words we choose are full of our inner-most motives.
That’s not to say that there is never a time to speak. Rather, in the Christian spiritual life we are invited to a greater and deeper awareness of our words, and how they reflect our own interior. We are invited to notice how we use words to manipulate and manage situations . . . how by our words we attempt to control others.
This is the crux of Antony’s response, when Abba Joseph admitted that he did not know the answer. The younger monks may have felt humiliated to admit they did not know. Perhaps they were trying to impress Abba Antony. Maybe they wanted to show him how smart they were, or how their time under his tutelage had borne fruit.
In the end, Antony was not impressed with their answers. He only commended Father Joseph, who said simply, “I do not know.”
It seems to me that those who are wisest and most humble among us are not afraid to say, “I do not know.” They don’t have to have an opinion about everything. They do not need to impress anyone else. They are willing to stay silent, to continue learning. They are comfortable with themselves and with who they are in God . . . so comfortable, that they are willing to risk being seen as fools by others when keeping their mouths shut.
An old proverb says: Typically, those who don’t know are the first to speak. Those who do know, don’t need to speak.
ANTONY tested a group that came to visit him by quoting a verse of Scripture. Beginning with the youngest, he asked each for an interpretation. They responded as well as they could, but Antony told them he did not think they understood the verse.
Finally, he turned to Abba Joseph. “How would you explain these words?” Joseph replied, “I do not know.”
Antony was elated. “Abba Joseph has found the way, because he admitted he did not know.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 2]
The tongue (words we speak) reveals what lives within us. We use words to impress others, to demonstrate how smart (or wise, or vulnerable, or humble, or eloquent, or compassionate) we are. The words we choose are full of our inner-most motives.
That’s not to say that there is never a time to speak. Rather, in the Christian spiritual life we are invited to a greater and deeper awareness of our words, and how they reflect our own interior. We are invited to notice how we use words to manipulate and manage situations . . . how by our words we attempt to control others.
This is the crux of Antony’s response, when Abba Joseph admitted that he did not know the answer. The younger monks may have felt humiliated to admit they did not know. Perhaps they were trying to impress Abba Antony. Maybe they wanted to show him how smart they were, or how their time under his tutelage had borne fruit.
In the end, Antony was not impressed with their answers. He only commended Father Joseph, who said simply, “I do not know.”
It seems to me that those who are wisest and most humble among us are not afraid to say, “I do not know.” They don’t have to have an opinion about everything. They do not need to impress anyone else. They are willing to stay silent, to continue learning. They are comfortable with themselves and with who they are in God . . . so comfortable, that they are willing to risk being seen as fools by others when keeping their mouths shut.
An old proverb says: Typically, those who don’t know are the first to speak. Those who do know, don’t need to speak.
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