Silence is a re-read for me. I'm actually going to be discussing this book with two of my best friends soon! I first heard of this book when I started dating Andrew several years ago; his best friend wrote a paper on it, so he was telling me all about the book! Then, in 2016, we watched the Scorsese adaptation of it and I was hooked! Here's the trailer:
The movie blew my mind. I wasn't ready to talk to Andrew about it for at least a couple of days--much to his dismay! I read Silence for the first time in 2017 and my mind has been chock full of questions and ideas about faith and suffering since then. Perfect kind of book for this blog, right?
SILENCE | SHUSAKU ENDO
As you most likely picked up on from the movie trailer, Silence is a story about two Portuguese missionaries, Garrpe and Rodrigues, who go to Japan in search of their mentor, Father Ferreira. The story takes place in the 17th Century--a time of intense persecution of Christians in Japan, as we will soon see. However, as the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that Silence is really about the Christian faith, suffering, and the coming-of-age of sorts of Father Rodrigues, from whose perspective most of the story is told.
The two fathers, or padres as they are called more commonly in the novel, set sail for Japan via an obscure and indirect route through China. Portuguese ships are forbidden from entering Japanese waters, so they must find an alternative means of entrance. While seeking a ship bound for Japan, they encounter their first Japanese: Kichijiro. He proves to be both a blessing and a curse to the padres.
Throughout the novel, Kichijiro becomes an image of doubt and humanity. When we are introduced to him, we condemn him for being a drunk, an apostatizer, a coward...by the novel's conclusion, we are beginning to understand that we ourselves are Kichijiro.
Upon arriving on a Japanese beach, Kichijiro is the one who directs the padres to their first Christians. Garrpe and Rodrigues spend their first days and weeks hiding out in a hut outside of a secretly Christian village. In the evenings, one or two of the villagers will bring them a meal in exchange for having their confession heard or having their child baptized. The priests are torn between feeling like they are providing the villagers access to sacraments that have been unknown on the island for sometime and feeling like they ought to split up and find more Christians--and Ferreira.
After some time passes, the magistrate catches on to the uptick in Christian activity in the village and two mean are brutally martyred tied to stakes in the ocean. The martyr's recited a refrain from a hymn that is repeated throughout the novel:
We're on our way, we're on our way
We're on our way to the temple of Paradise,
To the temple of Paradise...
To the great Temple...
During the days of the martyrs' torment, Rodrigues spends a considerable amount of time reflecting on the silence of God during their suffering. He wonders,
"What do I want to say? I myself do not understand. Only that today, when for the glory of God Mokichi and Ichizo moaned, suffered and died, I cannot bear the monotonous sound of the dark sea gnawing at the shore. Behind the depressing silence of this sea, the silence of God. ... the feeling that while men raise their voices in anguish God remains with folded arms, silent."
While most of us probably haven't experienced suffering to this degree, haven't we all asked this question of God? "Where are You? Do You hear me in my suffering? Why don't You act in your omnipotence and omnibenevolence?" What I like most about this book is the honesty in the questions it asks. Many of us are afraid to voice this question and can breathe a sigh of relief what Padre Rodrigues asks it for us.
The martyrdom of Mochizi and Ichizo convinces the priests--and the villagers, for that matter--that they are putting the Christians in too much danger and must press on to other villages. Furthermore, Garrpe and Rodrigues decide they must split up, so they have a lesser chance of both being immediately caught as the only two priests in Japan.
At this point, we lose touch with Garrpe. Rodrigues finds himself alone in Japan and alone with his questions. He faces many more trials and is even betrayed by Kichijiro, ultimately winding up in a small prison with some Japanese Christians outside of Nagasaki.
In the prison, Rodrigues is again visited by Kichijiro, who asks for absolution and forgiveness from the priest. This leads Rodrigues into another incredibly interesting reflection: Why did Jesus say "What thou dost, do quickly" to Judas?
"What emotion had filled the breast of Christ when he ordered away the man who was to betray him for thirty pieces of silver? Was it anger? or resentment? Or did these words arise from his love? ... Christ wanted to save even Judas. If not, he would never have made him one of his disciples. And yet why did Christ not stop him when he began to slip from the path of righteousness? ... If it is not blasphemous to say so, I have a feeling that Judas was no more than the unfortunate puppet for the glory of that drama which was the life and death of Christ."
Again we have such an honest look into the mind of a faithful man. At the conclusion of the book, we see how Rodrigues grows in his understanding of Christ's relationship with Judas and this strange command to betray him quickly.
Later, Rodrigues is summoned from the prison to witness a strange and terrible event. On the journey, the interpreter that is with him barrages him with questions about the Christian concept of mercy compared with the Buddhist concept. Shouldn't a priest have pity on the flock and put their needs above his own? Enter the ethical dilemma of the novel: Should a priest apostatize so that Christians will not be tortured and killed? This is the question that Rodrigues wrestles with for the duration of the novel.
The question plays itself out before Rodrigues' helpless eyes: Three Christians are bound and taken out into the ocean on a boat. Garrpe is asked to recant his faith and fails to do so. The Christians are thrown overboard. As they sink, Garrpe struggles in the sea to save them and ultimately meets his own end as well. Rodrigues watches the whole spectacle from a distance, helpless to interfere.
Returning to the prison, the priest becomes utterly despondent. He endures many interrogations from the magistrate and ultimately faces his former mentor: Father Ferreira, now known as Sawano Chuan. Sorrowfully to Rodrigues, the rumors about Ferreira were true--he had apostatized and taken on a Japanese life: name, spouse, children, occupation... The interrogations do not go as Rodrigues expects--rather than physical threats against his own body and life, he is faced with threats of others suffering in his stead.
In his cell, Rodrigues steps into the chair of the interrogator and brings his questions before God: How long will you be silent?
In the end, Rodrigues is faced with a choice. Three Christians are suspended upside down in a pit, blood dripping slowly from their temples to keep them alive. He can either apostatize and save them, or maintain his priesthood and let them perish slowly. He chooses mercy for the Japanese peasant Christians.
As he approaches the fume to trample and renounce his faith, he hears God. The silence is broken.
"Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men's pain that I carried my cross."
I'll spare you my commentary and simply ask the question that plagues my mind: What would I do? What do I feel and think is right in this ghastly scenario? Is it more loving and merciful to maintain faith as a person responsible to set an example of Christianity for his flock? Or is it more loving and merciful to demonstrate the self-dying of Christ in an act of apostasy?
More happens in the book, but I will leave you with Rodrigues' final reflections on this experience and the presence of Christ with him in his most dire moment:
[Christ to Rodrigues:] "Your foot suffers in pain. It must suffer like all the feet that have stepped on this plaque. But that pain alone is enough. I understand your pain and suffering. It is for that reason that I am here."
[Rodrigues to Christ:] "Lord, I resented your silence."
"I was not silent. I suffered beside you."
"But you told Judas to go away: What thou dost do quickly. What happened to Judas?
"I did not say that. Just as I told you to step on the plaque, so I told Judas to do what he was going to do. For Judas was in anguish as you are."
...
"He had lowered his foot on to the plaque, sticky with dirt and blood. His five toes had pressed upon the face of one he loved. Yet he could not understand the tremendous onrush of joy that came over him at that moment. ... Even now I am the last priest in this land. But Our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of him."
Conclusion: Have read multiple times and will probably continue reading again and again in the future. Literally everyone should read this provocative book. 9.5/10
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