Silence
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Wolran Kim
March 2013
Silence deals with human anguish and the faith of Portuguese Father Rodriguez who crossed over to Japan in the 17th century as a Jesuit missionary. Rodriguez’s journey of suffering begins with the news of Fr. Ferreira’s apostasy and disgust against a deceitful coward, Kichijiro. Catholics began to spread in Japan in the mid-16th century; however, persecution against Catholics deepened during the time when Rodriguez landed.
He started his young missionary work at the risk of his life. The process of changing the situation is more interesting; he became the same person as Ferreira and Kichijiro. He said, “I wonder if there is any difference between Kichijiro and myself (ch 9, p.175).”He also doubts the existence of God while he watches Japanese martyrs in front of God’s silence; “If he does not exist, how absurd the whole thing becomes (ch 4, p.68).” He eventually admits at the end, “I know that my Lord is different from the God that is preached in the churches (ch 4, p.175).”
Rodriguez’s faith was too passionate and pure just like his young age. He could not believe Ferreira’s apostasy because Ferreira was in the highest respect, overflowing with a spirit of indomitable courage in his letters for his 33 years in Japan. Also, he could not believe that evil Kichijiro was a believer because he saw the destinations of humanity with just a believer’s yardstick. His expectations for the believers might be an unrealistic fantasy, because I don’t think that faith can completely change true characters and values of humanity.
Liars, cheaters, and overly proud people live well believing in their own God. All believers are not all saints or altruistic moralists. Kichijiro spins around Rodriguez and God with his ability to the end. He said, “I was born weak. One who is weak at heart cannot die a martyr. Ah, why was I born into the world at all? (ch 8, p.163)” Kichijiro is a character who has a natural identity of weakness and selfishness. All humans are deceitful and cowardly.
Habitually, God exists in the image that is made by individual humans in the limits of humanity. “It was not given to man to understand all the mysteries of the Scriptures (ch 8, p.164).” As these words from Rodriguez state, people manipulate and re-assemble the Almighty God within human’s ability and through human’s knowledge. For that reason, humans recreated God as a Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and Mormon. Moreover, God became divided into different images of a Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, etc. Inoue said “Father, you were not defeated by me. You were defeated by this swamp of Japan (ch 10, p.187).”
Inoue’s words refer to Ferreira’s words, ““The Christianity they believe in is like the skeleton of a butterfly caught in a spider’s web: it contains only the external form; the blood and the flesh are gone (ch 7, p.152).” Ferreira said that the Japanese God is a totally different God from the Jesuits. For this reason, the author reviews that Rodriguez’s last faith, closer to Protestantism, is more significant; “Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of him (ch 10, p.191).”
Rodriguez is constantly reminding himself of the face of Jesus in many different aspects depending on his circumstances. Different faces of Jesus in the Bible and the curriculum of his seminary awaken or comfort him through his situations. Right after he landed in Japan, he was deeply impressed by helping hidden Christians; “This is a happiness that only a missionary priest in a foreign land can relish (ch 3, p.38).” Then he recognized during his watch of the Japanese martyrs in front of God’s silence; “Yet in this day of trial, when he felt himself like Job in his leprosy, how difficult it was to raise his voice in praise (ch 6, p.92).”
Finally, he heard Jesus’ voice when he trampled fumi superficially; “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 (ch 8, p.171).” This permission from Jesus might be an expression of Jesus’ humanity, which participates in the agony of human beings just like his anguish in Gethsemane (Luke 27:44) rather than the sake of the tortured Christians. Rodriguez’s God was never silent in conclusion. This perspective might seem as just a coward’s self-rationality to non-believers; however, this way is the only substance of faith in reality.
“I bear no grudge against you! I am only laughing at man’s fate. My faith in you is different from what it was; but I love you still (ch 10, p.189).” Rodriguez calls himself a fallen priest, Nagasaki people call him “Apostate Paul,” and his new name is Okada San’emon, but his faith never weakens.
Rodriquez would never trample fumi if he and other Japanese believers were tortured and forced apostasy individually. He would never tread the face of Jesus, which he draws through his lifetime without the sound of moaning from believers who have already apostate and wait for his apostasy. He braced himself as a martyr until he misapprehended the moaning sound to snoring; “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn (ch 7, p.148).”
"Suddenly his breast was filled with a wild joy in the thought that he was united with these two Japanese, united with Garrpe, united with that man nailed to the cross (ch 8, p.159).” When he complains about the snoring sound, he compares him to a praying Jesus and snoring people as sleeping unenlightened disciples. However, he conversely suffers with guilt because he ignored the believers’ pain after he found out the truth of the snoring sound.
The sound of moaning gives more emotional pain to Rodriguez than the witnessing of torture scenes. Inoue’s psychological torture used the “LOVE” of the Catholic motto perfectly and knocked Rodriguez down. God gives enlightenment through the conscious and the unconscious using the Bible to believers. There is no difference between my God and Kichijiro’s God, because I used to complain of my weakness and selfishness to God in my daily life. There is no difference between Rodriquez’s God and mine in the same way. Rodriguez gives to the sacrament of confession to Kichijiro who is the same as Judas in the last scene. Only God knows the religious truth in human agony.
Rodriguez and Ferreira live in the supervision and monitoring of the Japanese for the rest of their lives; “And when they did meet, neither would be able to plumb the depths of the other’s solitude (ch 9, p.178).” Rodriguez expresses his feelings about Ferreira as hatred and loathing; “to see his own ugly face in the mirror” and “two inseparable ugly twins (ch 9, p.177).” Although they are branded as apostates in the church organizations, their sacrifices and courage are consistent with the Scriptures, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Act 1:8)." Rodriguez said, “No one can be defeated by missionary work (ch 7, p.146).”
There would not be numerous Christians in the East countries without their missions. Rodriguez’s God will go along with him despite his situation in the prison of Japan.
========
Wolran Kim
March 2013
Silence deals with human anguish and the faith of Portuguese Father Rodriguez who crossed over to Japan in the 17th century as a Jesuit missionary. Rodriguez’s journey of suffering begins with the news of Fr. Ferreira’s apostasy and disgust against a deceitful coward, Kichijiro. Catholics began to spread in Japan in the mid-16th century; however, persecution against Catholics deepened during the time when Rodriguez landed.
He started his young missionary work at the risk of his life. The process of changing the situation is more interesting; he became the same person as Ferreira and Kichijiro. He said, “I wonder if there is any difference between Kichijiro and myself (ch 9, p.175).”He also doubts the existence of God while he watches Japanese martyrs in front of God’s silence; “If he does not exist, how absurd the whole thing becomes (ch 4, p.68).” He eventually admits at the end, “I know that my Lord is different from the God that is preached in the churches (ch 4, p.175).”
Rodriguez’s faith was too passionate and pure just like his young age. He could not believe Ferreira’s apostasy because Ferreira was in the highest respect, overflowing with a spirit of indomitable courage in his letters for his 33 years in Japan. Also, he could not believe that evil Kichijiro was a believer because he saw the destinations of humanity with just a believer’s yardstick. His expectations for the believers might be an unrealistic fantasy, because I don’t think that faith can completely change true characters and values of humanity.
Liars, cheaters, and overly proud people live well believing in their own God. All believers are not all saints or altruistic moralists. Kichijiro spins around Rodriguez and God with his ability to the end. He said, “I was born weak. One who is weak at heart cannot die a martyr. Ah, why was I born into the world at all? (ch 8, p.163)” Kichijiro is a character who has a natural identity of weakness and selfishness. All humans are deceitful and cowardly.
Habitually, God exists in the image that is made by individual humans in the limits of humanity. “It was not given to man to understand all the mysteries of the Scriptures (ch 8, p.164).” As these words from Rodriguez state, people manipulate and re-assemble the Almighty God within human’s ability and through human’s knowledge. For that reason, humans recreated God as a Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and Mormon. Moreover, God became divided into different images of a Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, etc. Inoue said “Father, you were not defeated by me. You were defeated by this swamp of Japan (ch 10, p.187).”
Inoue’s words refer to Ferreira’s words, ““The Christianity they believe in is like the skeleton of a butterfly caught in a spider’s web: it contains only the external form; the blood and the flesh are gone (ch 7, p.152).” Ferreira said that the Japanese God is a totally different God from the Jesuits. For this reason, the author reviews that Rodriguez’s last faith, closer to Protestantism, is more significant; “Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of him (ch 10, p.191).”
Rodriguez is constantly reminding himself of the face of Jesus in many different aspects depending on his circumstances. Different faces of Jesus in the Bible and the curriculum of his seminary awaken or comfort him through his situations. Right after he landed in Japan, he was deeply impressed by helping hidden Christians; “This is a happiness that only a missionary priest in a foreign land can relish (ch 3, p.38).” Then he recognized during his watch of the Japanese martyrs in front of God’s silence; “Yet in this day of trial, when he felt himself like Job in his leprosy, how difficult it was to raise his voice in praise (ch 6, p.92).”
Finally, he heard Jesus’ voice when he trampled fumi superficially; “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 (ch 8, p.171).” This permission from Jesus might be an expression of Jesus’ humanity, which participates in the agony of human beings just like his anguish in Gethsemane (Luke 27:44) rather than the sake of the tortured Christians. Rodriguez’s God was never silent in conclusion. This perspective might seem as just a coward’s self-rationality to non-believers; however, this way is the only substance of faith in reality.
“I bear no grudge against you! I am only laughing at man’s fate. My faith in you is different from what it was; but I love you still (ch 10, p.189).” Rodriguez calls himself a fallen priest, Nagasaki people call him “Apostate Paul,” and his new name is Okada San’emon, but his faith never weakens.
Rodriquez would never trample fumi if he and other Japanese believers were tortured and forced apostasy individually. He would never tread the face of Jesus, which he draws through his lifetime without the sound of moaning from believers who have already apostate and wait for his apostasy. He braced himself as a martyr until he misapprehended the moaning sound to snoring; “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn (ch 7, p.148).”
"Suddenly his breast was filled with a wild joy in the thought that he was united with these two Japanese, united with Garrpe, united with that man nailed to the cross (ch 8, p.159).” When he complains about the snoring sound, he compares him to a praying Jesus and snoring people as sleeping unenlightened disciples. However, he conversely suffers with guilt because he ignored the believers’ pain after he found out the truth of the snoring sound.
The sound of moaning gives more emotional pain to Rodriguez than the witnessing of torture scenes. Inoue’s psychological torture used the “LOVE” of the Catholic motto perfectly and knocked Rodriguez down. God gives enlightenment through the conscious and the unconscious using the Bible to believers. There is no difference between my God and Kichijiro’s God, because I used to complain of my weakness and selfishness to God in my daily life. There is no difference between Rodriquez’s God and mine in the same way. Rodriguez gives to the sacrament of confession to Kichijiro who is the same as Judas in the last scene. Only God knows the religious truth in human agony.
Rodriguez and Ferreira live in the supervision and monitoring of the Japanese for the rest of their lives; “And when they did meet, neither would be able to plumb the depths of the other’s solitude (ch 9, p.178).” Rodriguez expresses his feelings about Ferreira as hatred and loathing; “to see his own ugly face in the mirror” and “two inseparable ugly twins (ch 9, p.177).” Although they are branded as apostates in the church organizations, their sacrifices and courage are consistent with the Scriptures, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Act 1:8)." Rodriguez said, “No one can be defeated by missionary work (ch 7, p.146).”
There would not be numerous Christians in the East countries without their missions. Rodriguez’s God will go along with him despite his situation in the prison of Japan.