Short takes — Silence

Shūsaku Endō’s novel about a Jesuit priest who clandestinely enters Japan in 1639 in the face of the prohibition of Christianity frames itself initially as something of a mystery. Reports have returned to Portugal that Christóvão Ferreira, a respected missionary and theologian who has spent more than thirty years as a leader in Japan’s Christian community, has renounced his faith and apostatized under torture. A pair of young priests who studied under Ferreira, Sebastian Rodrigues and Francisco Garrpe, travel to Japan in spite of the attempt of their elders to dissuade them, both to serve a community under persecution as well as to determine the veracity of these unfathomable reports about their former mentor.
The genuine mysteries at play in Silence, in true Catholic fashion, are much deeper than the relatively simple matter of the facts on the ground. If Ferreira’s reported apostacy is initially incomprehensible to Rodrigues and Garrpe, it is not a matter of the what but the why. Why would a man of courage, a pillar of the faith, renounce Christ rather than accept martyrdom?
What is the value of a gesture? What is betrayal in the face of suffering, especially when that suffering is borne by others? What is the touch of a foot to the image of a man who touched the feet of the lowest and washed them with his own hands? What is it to be Judas? What is it to love Judas and minister to him? What is it to pray in secret? What can be known of the nature of faith in one’s own heart, much less the heart of another?
What is left for those of us who have apostatized and who still feel the power and necessity of doubt?
In the Bible, the nation of Israel takes its name from a man who deceived his father, betrayed his brother, and wrestled with a man in the wilderness until that man touched the hollow of his thigh. Even then, his hip dislocated, Jacob refused to release the man until he offered a blessing, and when the man refused to give his name Jacob declared that he had seen the face of God and lived.
Enoch walked with God, and was borne into Heaven without dying. Judas touched Christ with his own lips and hung himself in a field. Most of us live. It is difficult, for those who believe and those who do not.
This piece was originally published in the Unwinnable publication “Exploits” on August 1, 2018.
