Silence (Spoilers)

This novel has been on my list for quite some time--Graham Greene has a blurb on the back, and the introduction pulls no punches in comparing the author, Shusaku Endo, to Graham Greene. Indeed, the themes are similar--Endo writes about a priest in Japan who apostasizes.

Endo writes about the persecution of Christians in 17th century Japan--a Portuguese priest, Sebastian Rodrigues, sails to Japan in order to look for Father Ferreira, his old teacher, who is purported to have apostasized. Padre Rodrigues ministers to underground Christians that Kichijiro, who sailed over with him, leads him to. But in every place where he hears confessions, baptizes babies, and teaches the people, the authorities come and torture the people, looking for him. Finally, he realizes that Kichijiro has betrayed him--he sees Kichijiro as his Judas and struggles with forgiving him. Padre Rodrigues finally betrays Christ, becoming like Kichijiro. Rodrigues isn't tortured himself; rather, the officials torture the Christians he knows. Rodrigues watches their martyrdom, but finally apostasizes in order to prevent further torture. He struggles with the silence of God in the face of the torture of Christians, until he himself intervenes. The Japanese maintain that Christianity cannot work in Japan--that even when missionaries come, the people combine Christianity with their own religion in a sort of syncretism. It is Rodrigues himself, however, who, ironically, believes this syncretism at the end--he sees his own notion of love and mercy and his own way of loving and being merciful as better than Christ's. He breaks down the distinction between God and him. He becomes, at the end of the novel, a puppet for the Japanese government, who gives him a Japanese name and wife and require certain services of him that lead to the death of more Christians.

This novel is powerful and moving. The government tries to get the people to trample on a picture of Jesus to show that they aren't Christians. What the officials look for, however, is the look in their eyes as they trample the picture--for the Christians will have a look of pain on their face.

The novel meditates on Christ's very confusing words to Judas, "What thou dost, do quickly"--in fact, when Rodrigues is offered a picture of Christ to trample, he senses Christ telling him, "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. It was to share men's pain that I carried my cross."

One of the most Graham Greene-like aspects of the novel is the consideration of both strong Christians (in this novel, the ones who are martyred), and weak Christians (such as Kichijuro). While Kichijuro's and Rodirigues's actions are condemned by Endo, the complexity of their problem and their struggle is made clear, and the possibility of forgiveness for them is clear.