To reflect on this theme, seemingly simple but actually very complex and delicate (due also to a certain polysemy of words),  first I reread the Pre-Synodal document. Scrolling the Italian translation of the Instrumentum laboris in preparation for the XIII General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops ("The new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith")  I measured, surprisingly, the disproportion between the attention devoted to the "Word" and one dedicated to "Silence". The first is mentioned over thirty times, the second only three times, and not very significant.

More Word that silence

"Silence" meets at no. 62, with reference to the world of communication today (new tools ...): "there is a weakening and loss of the objective value of deep human experiences such as reflection and silence ...";  at no. 114, it talks about the relationship between monasticism, contemplation and evangelization, valuable and central experience  for  the Church, "giving a sense of silence and all other activities for the glory of God";  and at no. 69, where it is reported that  the response to the Lineamenta speaks of a "silent apostasy", ie the abandonment of faith by many  persons (and here the idea of ​​silence is not positive ...).
"Word" (of God, of the Gospel, in the Church's life ...) is used more than thirty times. Three times, as the Word of the Lord, in his "Preface".

I emphasize this disparity is not to criticize the text ‘s authors, but to recognize that it is easier to talk about the Word than of silence, since silence is naturally suited to the silence. But we must not forget that it is not only the absence of words, but ability to be present, a creativity seemingly thin and weak, but really amazing.

Elie Wiesel concludes his remarkable book The rise of the stars (in Italy by Pietro Stefani Marietti) dismissing his characters, the dead evoked with these words: "the silence, more than words,  remains the sign and the substance of what was their world and, like the word, the silence is imposed and asks to be transmitted. "

The fourth dimension

 Giuseppe Dossetti concludes his introduction (“Non restare in silenzio, mio Dio”, "Do not be silent, my God") to the volume Le querce di Monte Sole /Oaks of Monte Sole (edited by Luciano Gherardi in 1987 for Il Mulino): "... it should be possible to support and expand thinking and acting for peace in Christ's name with a last element, the silence: a lot of silent, instead of deafening din that now prevails. Silence is a fourth dimension of all.
In Scripture, the wisdom in its various meanings  - of proper religious wisdom and knowledge of practices, knowledge and personified wisdom and nomistic wisdom -  is always connected with the discipline of speech and with silence; that is it always requires an accumulation of power and energy that can reach only one who is quietly silent. [...]. Silence, calm, quiet and abandon, rest are increasingly opposed to the incessant scream of press, radio and television. Instead, even by Christians, we bow to the idol: it is attributed to the printed words and images’ inflation a power that they do not have.

Not to deny that there is the problem of an adequate spread of the Gospel and a correct and comprehensive information and education: but it can’t  be a real solution  the multiplication quantity of verbalization or imaginative suggestion, the daily newspapers, magazines, networks television, the festivals, increasingly complex and increasingly expensive, that you can not pay without compromises with justice and truth, without indulging more or less consciously in violence of language and methods.

The language, indeed, the method and style worried and agitated, retaliation controversy does not contribute to building the virtuous habitus of wisdom, but rather excite the vices of the world - even if they claim to fight them - so that, beyond the proclaimed  intentions, they work not for the clarification of ideas but to further confusion, do not lead to respect and redemption of man, but to further enslavement to the slavery of the senses and emotions. Ultimately they do not contribute to peace but to war. There is an accumulation of Christian energy, but a guilty dispersion. And what is worse, in this way, do not break, but also by Christians are strengthened, those that Moltmann has called the circuits of satanic death, power, racism and cultural alienation, destruction of nature, meaninglessness and abandonment of God ... ". So Giuseppe Dossetti wrote.

So: Silence and Word, together, to help the new evangelization. Moreover, if the attention of the Instrumentum  laboris seems a bit  too biased against the word  instead of silence, you could have the same impression looking the term "word" and "silence" in the Italian translations of the Gospels. But we must recognize that the Gospel - which is also inevitably made up of words, and indeed is in some way is identified with the "Word of God" - provides important examples of significant silence. Maybe not the precise term is expressed, but one feels the presence, the "gesture" of silence. And not only that of Jesus before the storm or Pilate, but also that of his Mother, and that of Mary, Martha’s sister ... And before that, starting from the silence of Zechariah to it, which shocked divined, of the apostles.

Do not separate the Word and Silence

But the Gospel is easy to draw a decisive reflection: speech and silence are linked. Far from being the opposite - the one the contradiction or absence of the other – they are two moments of creativity and truth. It is therefore of life. The silence in fact, so to speak, is before the word. It was quiet and empty, before God spoke the Word that created the cosmos. And there was silence before He spoke the Word of redemption, forgiveness and salvation: that word was made flesh and came among  us. From this, it should be easy to draw a first practical teaching. Even for the new evangelization  this logic is useful: the word is not, can not be improvised; but it must be prepared, it should mature. In one sense indeed it is called in to clear away many unnecessary words, as said the great Christian poet Clemente Rebora, "The Word silenced my talk."

Evangelization (it is called new, but in reality it is neither old nor new ...) can only be born from the silence that is meditation, faith, struggle with the angel, the key option to believe with all my life ... and therefore also with the words. No coincidence that the announcement made no visible words from the testimony of contemplatives, the lowly, the silent ... is often more clear and effective than that achieved by ... "microphones of God." But even the "microphones of God" (the famous preachers, the big media ...) can be useful and effective, but only on condition, in my opinion, that arise from the silence and have known the inner dialectic between what is unspeakable and the need to talk. It is essential that the new evangelization  know and express and nourish with humility of the speaker, but he knows what his words are insufficient. So who wants to contribute to evangelization is good to know how to speak (with humility and clarity ...)  but above all, could be quiet, meditate and listen and correct himself.

Sure: all reality who lives in time takes part in the inevitable ambivalence and must be continually purified in the fire of self-examination (not only individuals but also community and ecclesial): the word may be dominated by vanity, the silence by opportunism . But this is much easier if you think too much, and it was just too unbalanced about it either.
Too many words, the "presence" and "testimony" made only of words not only bored and brings suspicion to those interviewed, but builds in us a presumption of capacity, a false confidence that betrays the mystery that we must live before we announce. But the silence, alone, is not without presumption, almost a delirium of self-sufficiency and contempt for others, mortals who become drunk on words that sound so good.

Truth and love of God

Well, then for evangelization (new or old it is, we know it from 2000 years!) are useful  both word and silence, and they are purified and strengthened together,  in a mutual integration. But how to fit them together in a  positive and not destructive dialectic? It is not easy, and in fact we often see that people drastically are tempted to choose the one and not the other, one against the other. So to create a virtuous circle between speech and silence it is necessary that they are integrated and not involving, as it happens even with the best intentions of those that divide too rigidly the two dimensions and they measure and share with the sling as if they were poison.

To make them fit together well and with the result, it must be able to love each and other, without a divided heart: the word and silence (they are not the one positive and one negative, or vice versa), they are both gifts of God and the positive and extraordinary resources. Reading and rereading the Gospel and imagining, almost re-living the life of Jesus we can make our own this dynamic equilibrium, this synergy. And so we can experience the time of silence and that of the word and the virtues of both and their common service to the Gospel, that even today, as ever ,deserves to be announced in a peaceful and undivided heart. Remembering that goes for the evangelization that law that should illuminate our whole life: the real communication is friendly, that is, using words and silences, with understanding, sympathy, empathy for the addressee, the interview man. Somehow it is not a one-way communication, either through a newspaper, if the writer thinks  to talk to the reader and tries and imagines the reactions and hopes the answers. Maybe also tries to weave a dialogue (letters to the newspapers, now with the internet is even easier). So yes: speech and listening, voice and silence, meditation and pulpits, newspapers and readers come together in a dialogue not only a unique relationship of listening.