The concluding paragraph said, "Socrates wrote that Hermes, the messenger of the gods, is both a harbinger of truth and the father of lies, an apt description for the inventor of words. For words can reveal and conceal, say and unsay, express and withhold meaning. It is only when we are accustomed to silence that our words become transparent."

Let’s just pass over the fact that Socrates never wrote anything, that we know about him from what Plato wrote in his Dialogues. The important thing is the sense that when humans speak, they may be equally be lying as well as telling the truth.

Silence, which is necessary for reflection, is also drowned in the torrent of words as "noise is the signature of modernity." The "emptiness" of the universe must always be filled with words by newspapers, radio, and television in a constant stream of what passes for communication. And yet what is often communicated are falsehoods and other stratagems for concealing reality.

A recent example was the so-called agreement between FVR and GMA regarding Charter change and the shortening of GMA’s term which was denied by both FVR and GMA right after it was reported in media. Where this socalled news came from is a matter of speculation, but what seems obvious is that someone (from Malacañang or "outside") misled or manipulated media into spreading deniable "news." The greater damage, of course, is on the public mind.

No wonder, then, that some people are skeptical about media reports even as they find government claims about anything unworthy of belief. The result is the silencing of faith. There’s no grandeur in that.

Apart from politics, which erodes our capacity for belief, "the grandeur of silence" should also be applicable to the homilies of most priests, who ramble on and on and induce parishioners to sleep rather than awaken them to their faith. They ought to understand that brevity is the soul of sense.