Silence is Golden

When Jesus Christ walked the earth, he preached a bottom line, here and now philosophy cloaked in the metaphors of his time. He rebelled against the polluted practices of his religion of origin and he certainly did not preach about building a new religion - one that his disciples would accomplish. That edifice called the Church became privy to greater ills than the one he was attempting to purify. If Christ were a modern day prophet, he might have even sued St. Paul & Co. for identity theft and defamation.

Likewise, the historical Buddha took himself off into the wilds, away from his kingdom with its swamis and priests and found a new connection to the All-That-Is that defied all previous rules and regulations of the religions during his era. Since then, so many men (and a few women, generally not allowed to pontificate publically) have embellished the Buddha's words so much that one cannot say for sure what the Buddha really did express beyond a series of simple tracts.

In both cases, Christ and the Buddha, the original message is simple: compassion, love, service, non-violence to name a few. In fact, even an atheist would agree that these are quintessential characteristics of a bona fide human being and most animals.

People who are at each others' throats for religious differences ironically know the least about what their saviors would wish. Everyone knows about ubiquitous religious wars/persecution over the ages. Yet, even subtle duels called "religious debates" are the machinations of ego. 

It seems that the homily "silence is golden" may contain more wisdom than us down-home folks ever imagined.