!Spoiler Alert! This post contains information about the novel and film ' Silence'.
" How long, Lord, must I call for help and You do not listen, or cry out to You about violence and You do not save? Why do You force me to look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice never emerges." - Habakkuk 1:1-4
The prophet cries out these questions boldly to God. Injustice and violence surround him on every side, yet he cannot see God acting. He cries out to God, but he hears no answer. Habakkuk was a prophet who was torn up inside by what he saw around him, and desperately wanted to see God change it. He has much in common with the protagonist in Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. Being a Catholic Christian in Japan during the middle twentieth century, Endo had plenty of occasion to struggle in his faith and question how the gospel really works out in a person's life. Silence is the story of two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan in 1638 in order to continue the missionary work being done there, urged on by the rumor that Father Feirrera, their teacher, has renounced his faith after torture. It is the story, in particular, of the priest Sebastion Rodriques; his suffering, doubting, believing, faltering, and growing of a more deeply personal relationship with his God. Those that the priests come to minister to, the Japanese Christians who worship secretly and fervently, minister to them. Those they came to lay down their lives for, seeminlgy end up laying down their lives for them. The torture and suffering that is inflicted upon those who are discovered to be followers is the cruelest that can be devised. It is not the priests lives that are on the line if they refuse to apostatize, but the lives of their Japanese brothers. Rodriques cries in the novel seem to echo those of the prophet Habbakuk.
" Why has our Lord imposed this torture and this persecution on poor Japanese peasants?....The silence of God. Already twenty years have passed since this persecution broke out; the black soil of Japan has been filled with the lament of so many Christians ; the red blood of priests has flowed profusely; the walls of the churches have fallen down; and in the face of this terrible and merciless sacrifice offered up to Him, God has remained silent."
What Rodriques discovers slowly and painfully is that God is present in the suffering. In fact, those that suffer for Christ are sharing in who He is- because He suffered for us. The strongest, most enduring relationships in the world are those that have shared in hardship and pain together.
" Many centuries ago, that man tasted with His dried and swollen tongue all the suffering that I now endure, he reflected. And this sense of suffering shared softly eased his mind and heart more than the sweetest water."- Silence
The love Rodriques grows for his Lord matures and changes as he watches the Japaneses Christians put to slow, unbearable deaths, witnesses his fellow priest Garrpe die in an attempt to save them, speaks with the Japanese officials who inflict these punishments, meets his former father in the faith who chose to trample on an image of Jesus in order to save the lives of others, and perhaps most of all is repeatedly betrayed by and repeatedly pardons Kichijiro- a Japanese believer who has apostatized and betrayed his fellow believers numerous times. Rodriques, as he is rejected by many of the Japanese and betrayed by someone he chose to trust, draws parallels between his experiences and what Jesus went through. God was using his life as His voice.
" He loved Him now in a different way than before. Everything that had taken place until now had been necessary to bring him to this love. ' 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.'"
Scripture gives us an in depth of look at what was going on inside Jesus' spirit when He was dying. It expresses His agony at being separated from His Father, the greatest suffering He could possibly go through-and how He chose to worship even on the cross.
" My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning? My God, I cry to You by day, but You do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest. But You are holy, dwelling in the praises of Your people. Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted and You rescued them. They cried to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disgraced."- Psalm 22:1-5
" How long, Lord, must I call for help and You do not listen, or cry out to You about violence and You do not save? Why do You force me to look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing and conflict escalates. This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice never emerges." - Habakkuk 1:1-4
The prophet cries out these questions boldly to God. Injustice and violence surround him on every side, yet he cannot see God acting. He cries out to God, but he hears no answer. Habakkuk was a prophet who was torn up inside by what he saw around him, and desperately wanted to see God change it. He has much in common with the protagonist in Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. Being a Catholic Christian in Japan during the middle twentieth century, Endo had plenty of occasion to struggle in his faith and question how the gospel really works out in a person's life. Silence is the story of two Jesuit priests who travel to Japan in 1638 in order to continue the missionary work being done there, urged on by the rumor that Father Feirrera, their teacher, has renounced his faith after torture. It is the story, in particular, of the priest Sebastion Rodriques; his suffering, doubting, believing, faltering, and growing of a more deeply personal relationship with his God. Those that the priests come to minister to, the Japanese Christians who worship secretly and fervently, minister to them. Those they came to lay down their lives for, seeminlgy end up laying down their lives for them. The torture and suffering that is inflicted upon those who are discovered to be followers is the cruelest that can be devised. It is not the priests lives that are on the line if they refuse to apostatize, but the lives of their Japanese brothers. Rodriques cries in the novel seem to echo those of the prophet Habbakuk.
" Why has our Lord imposed this torture and this persecution on poor Japanese peasants?....The silence of God. Already twenty years have passed since this persecution broke out; the black soil of Japan has been filled with the lament of so many Christians ; the red blood of priests has flowed profusely; the walls of the churches have fallen down; and in the face of this terrible and merciless sacrifice offered up to Him, God has remained silent."
What Rodriques discovers slowly and painfully is that God is present in the suffering. In fact, those that suffer for Christ are sharing in who He is- because He suffered for us. The strongest, most enduring relationships in the world are those that have shared in hardship and pain together.
" Many centuries ago, that man tasted with His dried and swollen tongue all the suffering that I now endure, he reflected. And this sense of suffering shared softly eased his mind and heart more than the sweetest water."- Silence
The love Rodriques grows for his Lord matures and changes as he watches the Japaneses Christians put to slow, unbearable deaths, witnesses his fellow priest Garrpe die in an attempt to save them, speaks with the Japanese officials who inflict these punishments, meets his former father in the faith who chose to trample on an image of Jesus in order to save the lives of others, and perhaps most of all is repeatedly betrayed by and repeatedly pardons Kichijiro- a Japanese believer who has apostatized and betrayed his fellow believers numerous times. Rodriques, as he is rejected by many of the Japanese and betrayed by someone he chose to trust, draws parallels between his experiences and what Jesus went through. God was using his life as His voice.
" He loved Him now in a different way than before. Everything that had taken place until now had been necessary to bring him to this love. ' 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.'"
Scripture gives us an in depth of look at what was going on inside Jesus' spirit when He was dying. It expresses His agony at being separated from His Father, the greatest suffering He could possibly go through-and how He chose to worship even on the cross.
" My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning? My God, I cry to You by day, but You do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest. But You are holy, dwelling in the praises of Your people. Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted and You rescued them. They cried to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disgraced."- Psalm 22:1-5