… Creatures speak in sounds. The word of God is silence. The secret word of God’s love can be nothing but silence. Christ is the silence of God. There is no tree like the cross. No harmony like the silence of God. The Pythagoreans knew this harmony in the endless silence that surrounds the stars. Necessity, here below, is the resonance f God’s silence.

Our soul makes constant noise, but it has a silent place we never hear. When the silence of God enters us, pierces our soul and joins its silent secret place, then God is our treasure and our heart. And space opens before us like a fruit that breaks in two. Then we see the universe from a point beyond space.

Simone Weil

I was touched by this passage although there are meanings which elude me. In fact, I sought more information on its author, Simone Weil, and was surprised to learn she was quite respected and revered, first as a political activist in France and later as a mystic. Many famous people of the 20^th century considered her a leading light, a saint; among them T. S. Eliot and Albert Camus. You can read more of her fascinating story on Wikipedia.

In this except, I particularly like the phrase, “our soul makes constant noise, but it has a silent place we never hear.” I never thought of a soul being noisy. Is it the clamoring for reunion? And what is the sound of silence? Can a thing be known by its absence? Is the fruit that breaks in two our heart, caught in the duality of life? Is the universe we see the eternity that surrounds the stars? Food for contemplation.