116- Voice or Sound

Trying to reconcile between a man and his wife, I asked the wife to phone him, talk to him lovingly and gain his favor with kind words for the sake of the peace of the family.

I asked the man, “Did your wife phone you?”

“She phoned yesterday.”

“I hope she expressed her love for you.”

“As she started to record me a message on the answer machine I left the in order not to hear her voice.”

“She cherishes and loves you.”

“I can’t even bear to hear her voice on the phone. I feel that her voice enrages me and makes me nervous.”

“Why?”

“I feel that she’s acting; her behavior doesn’t express her words...I can’t bear her hypocrisy.”

I felt sorry for, no one knows the heart save God. I could not say she is hypocrite. Moreover, I pitted the man for having such feelings. It needs the Divine hands to work in their hearts.

I then remembered that conversation which takes place among a family members or friends; that is, when someone hears his brother’s kind voice as if it were noisy disturbing sound. As St. Paul the Apostle says,

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13.1).

St. Augustine expressed this practically when he differentiated between the voice and the sound. The voice is the dialogue of love and understanding between two persons while, the sound causes annoyance and disturbance. He illustrated it as follows: many people pray to God with sounds instead of the loving voices of the heart. Those who pray using harmonious words which are not typical to the language of the heart, their words become just sound. Therefore, the Lord says,

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 7. 21). In the Old Testament, God says,

“Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear” (Isa. 1. 15).

Gods seeks the language or the voice of the heart not that of the tongue, thus the psalmist says,

“Hear the voice of my supplications” (Ps. 28.2),

as if it was not enough to make supplications but the voice of supplications which is the language of prayers that shakes heaven.

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: صوت محبة أم ضجيج مقلق؟!

My beloved Lord, teach me the language of the accepted prayers,

So that the words of my mouth may support the voice of my heart,

And my prayers would not be a disturbing sound to heaven.

In Your wonderful love, You call my soul saying,

“Let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice;

For your voice is sweet, And your face is lovely” (Song. 2. 14)

You desire to see my inner man,

And to hear the voice of my heart, my silent prayers.

Many a time, I lengthen my prayers with the words of my mouth not my heart.

People hear me; however, my words do not reach even the ceiling of my room.

Grant me the language of the heart,

Which no one can hear, but shakes heaven,

And pleases You O who hear the voice of Your children.

Tragedy in the Honey

Short Stories (Stories for the Youth) Books by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

The Flying Doves