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r/Catholicism•
DiGam

I just finished reading Silence by Shusaku Endo and I want to know what others think about the ending.

I decided to read this great book on the recommendation of my theology professor and in light of it being made into a film with Martin Scorcese directing. I went into it without any knowledge about the plot and I am glad I did, because this is a phenomenal book. What Fr Rodriguez and the Japanese Christians experience is truly heartbreaking.

The ending is what really got me thinking about my own faith and what I would do if faced with the same decision as Fr Rodriguez: to apostatize and end the suffering of fellow Christians or bot place a foot on the fumie and surely die in the pit. I feel that I ought to not apostatize and be martyred, but I know that I am weak. What are your thoughts?

Posted Mar 11, 2016, 4:54 AM UTC

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Master-Thief•

I appreciated the ending, and Endo's perspective. We are weak, and we suffer, we persecute and are persecuted and we trample and are trampled upon by the choices of others, and it is in our nature to do all these things. Jesus entered into humanity, and he too was made weak, and suffered, and was persecuted was trampled upon. Unlike us, this was something freely chosen, and he neither persecuted nor trampled upon in retaliation. When Jesus speaks and says "trample upon me!" to Rodrigues, that was a powerful moment, a reminder that though we are weak, God knows our weakness and accompanies us in it.

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limita•

One thing we can possibly take from the ending is that even though we have all the other virtues, spiritual pride can still kill us. Fr. Rodriguez was fully prepared to go to maryrdom, but got so buried in the sacrifice he was about to bring that he forget that he is not the only one who is suffering. He failed as a priest, he failed as a Christian, he failed so completely and awfully that he didn't even think about the possibility of repentance - and that broke him.

Maybe if he asked God's forgiveness, he would be reminded that very probably, Jesus in Gethsemani suffered the same pain of knowing people He loves would bear undescribable torments for Him. Maybe that would give him enough strength.

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corelli72•

I know this is a great book, and it's my fault for not seeing it, but it has always seemed to me so much a rip-off of Graham Greene's 'The Power and the Glory' that I have never been able to make an unbiased judgment of it.

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