4 Great, Tough Lessons I Learned From Silence

Last updated on: March 28, 2017 at 3:06 pm by Paul Asay

4 Great, Tough Lessons I Learned From Silence 2017-03-28T15:06:29-06:00 Paul Asay

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Andrew Garfield and Nana Komatsu in Silence, photo courtesy Paramount Pictures

4. The Stubbornness of Faith.

The story doesn’t end there. Rodrigues, we learn, lives out the rest of his days in Japan, an apparent apostate. He writes anti-Christian treatises and spends his days inspecting pottery and Buddhist idols for Christian symbols—ways that Japan’s “hidden Christians” could continue to worship their chosen God without the authorities being any the wiser.

But just the presence of these clever signs of worship gives voice to Christianity’s stubborn refusal to completely wither and die in (as Endō calls it) the “swamp” of Japan. The authorities tried to annihilate the faith, but somehow it survived.

It survived even in Rodrigues’ own heart, Scorsese tells us. By the end of the film, Rodrigues grows old and dies, and he’s cremated as Buddhist tradition demands. But as the flames lap around his final tomb, we see inside—and see a tiny cross cupped in Rodrigues’s hands.

Perhaps none of us can truly understand what real persecution looks like. But as the country turns increasingly secular, sometimes it can feel as though faith and Christianity is under attack. A story in London’s The Spectator suggested that, if present trends continue, Christianity will completely disappear from Great Britain by 2067.

I don’t doubt that we’re now living in a “post-Christian” society, and that the Church’s influence is on the wane. But will it vanish? I don’t think so. Faith, if it’s a true faith, will live on even in the most trying of circumstances. Even if enemies of the faith find cause to celebrate its demise, I think it’ll still be there, just out of sight—just as powerful, glorious and beautiful as ever.

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