蜜芽传媒

What鈥檚 the most poignant of all of Shakespeare鈥檚 lines? For me, especially as we come round each year to Easter, I think of Hamlet鈥檚 last words: 鈥淭he rest is silence鈥�.

What do these words mean? Perhaps they refer to the limits of language itself. Hamlet spends so much energy wrestling with words鈥攕oliloquizing, philosophizing, sparring 鈥� yet to what end? Does 鈥淭he rest is silence鈥� signal a recognition that, after all, language can only say and do so much?
The stakes may be even higher. It鈥檚 another of Shakespeare鈥檚 plays, As You Like It, where we hear of all the world being a stage, and all the men and women merely players; but Hamlet too invites us to think about the relationship between theatre and real life. He stages a play to catch a king, and he himself takes on different roles throughout the story.

So, when he says, 鈥淭he rest is silence,鈥� he may be acknowledging that his time is up, and that鈥檚 all there is. Only the hush of the audience remains. In his agonising musing, 鈥淭o be or not to be鈥�, he speculates about an afterlife, but perhaps the prospect of his own death has given him fresh clarity, to see that there is in fact nothing beyond. Maybe.

But the opposite might also be true. What if 鈥淭he rest is silence鈥� is instead a final expression of faith, in the form of letting go? That is, of finding calm in the peace of heaven. His friend Horatio鈥檚 parting words certainly seem to chime with this possibility: 鈥淎nd flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!鈥� he says.
Yesterday, Christian church services were marked by solemn readings and quiet reverence, ending without music or formal dismissal. Today, the day before Easter, goes even further in that direction. There are no liturgies at all. This is indeed the only day in the entire year when no Mass is celebrated.
But Tonight, churches will hold Easter Vigils, when, gradually, light, Scripture, song, and words return to their services, culminating in a proclamation of Christ having risen from the dead. And with that news comes the triumphant reprise of the word 鈥淎lleluia鈥� 鈥� literally, Praise the Lord 鈥� after it had been dropped entirely from worship throughout Lent. It鈥檚 an eruption of joy after forty days of penitence.

In our busy-busy, information-overloaded modern world, it may be salutary for all of us occasionally to pause, to learn patience, and to imagine how silence itself may sometimes be eloquent. For 2.6 billion Christians around the world, however, this is especially true today: it鈥檚 an occasion for silent reflection on the belief that the rest is not silence, that death is not the final curtain. Today is a moment of intense, overbrimming, dramatic suspense: the quiet before the holy storm.

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