Brothers and sisters… when you walk across Charles Bridge in Prague, you will find over 30 statues and groups of saints—and among them the oldest, the iconographically legendary statue of Saint John of Nepomuk, which has stood in its place since 1683. And although it has stood there silently for so long… it still has something to say to everyone who passes by daily.
It is such beautiful symbolism – the saint does not stand in a quiet church but in the midst of the hustle and bustle of this world, on a bridge over which a huge number of people pass daily. He stands in the middle of the world in priestly garb – he has a clear identity, publicly declares his allegiance to the Catholic Church,Whentime, but and hides nothing… and this is precisely in such an atheistic country as our neighbors are. So the first thing this saint inspires us with is courage – the courage to be readable at first glance… the courage to bear witness to Christ… the courage not to merge with this world.
Another thing we can notice is how he is portrayed. Saint John has his finger on his mouth… because he knew how to speak at the right time but also how to remain silent at the right time. In the era of the rise of mass media, where we are bombarded with one piece of information after another from all sides—via the Internet, radio, newspapers, or television… we lose our sense of what to share – what to move forward with, and what to feed our hearts with because of what to develop into topics in conversations. And so, in the place of the greatest tourist traffic, Saint John has his mouth closed but both eyes and ears open, as if he wanted to tell us, “Be quiet! Listen to God’s voice and do not close your eyes to His care; let your words be guided by love for the truth.
However, John’s silence also applies to the mystery of confession, for which he underwent a martyr’s death. And so, with his silence, he clearly speaks of the amazing gift of God’s mercy that God has placed in holy confession.
And finally, the saint is often depicted with a cross in his hands, which he looks at with love and fear… as if he wanted to draw our gaze to it and reveal to us where we can find the source of life and happiness. So let the memory of John of Nepomuk lead us to self-reflection and to the questions we need to askAsAndSomeone. How often do I spend time in silence—the silence that is necessary for hearing the voice of God? Can I keep a secret someone confides in me… and not spread others’ mistakes? Can I be discreet?
