Jubilee Films for Pilgrims of Hope: 'Silence'

By Fr. Greg Apparcel, CSP

I have now seen the 2016 film “Silence” four times, and I experience something new each time.  Based on Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel, Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” focuses on the suffering of two Portuguese Jesuit priests in 17th-century Japan where Christianity is no longer allowed.  It is a crime punishable by death.  Having just watched the new FX series “Shogun,” I feel immersed in that place and time.  That series, based on James Clavell’s novel, is set a few decades earlier than “Silence” when Christianity and Jesuit priests were still allowed.  So, it is painful to watch what happened to Japanese Christians and their priests just thirty years later.

Following the Jubilee theme of “Faces and Counterfaces of Hope” I zoned in on the faces of Christ presented in images throughout and the counterface of the character named Kichijiro who continually betrays the priests and other Christians and continually seeks forgiveness through confession.

The film begins with a mission undertaken by two young Jesuit priests, Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garrpe (Adam Driver).  They are called to sneak into Japan and find the missing Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson). In 1633 there were new persecutions in Japan, centered in Nagasaki.  Fr. Ferriera watched his brother priests tortured and killed for refusing to step on the icon of Jesus.  It was said that the story of their courage gives hope to those who remain Christian in Japan in secret.  But what happened to Fr. Ferriera?  Allegedly he apostatized and trampled on the icon.  Yet there is no proof.  Fr. Rodrigues especially does not believe it.  What happened to his former teacher is still unknown.

So enters Kichijiro (the excellent Yosuke Kubozuka), who is drunk, unwashed and claiming to have given up his Christian faith. However, in May of 1641, he agrees to smuggle the two priests into Japan.  When Kichijuoro abandons them, Fr. Garrpe says “We trust that man with our lives,” and Fr. Rodrigues responds “Jesus trusted even worse.”  But Kichijioro will have more opportunities to rival Judas Iscariot. He comes back again and again.  Early on, they discover a group of secret Christians who hunger for the sacraments and any tangible image or objects of their faith. Rodrigues even hands out the beads of his rosary one by one. Kichijiro alone refuses the bead.  He says he doesn’t deserve it because he stepped on the image of Christ while his family did not and were burned to death in front of him.

They all fear the Inquisitor named Inoue, and soon Kichijiro reveals the priests’ hiding place.  More Christians arrive and with them comes Inoue.  He wants the Christian leaders to spit on Christ’s face.  They refuse but once again Kichijiro does spit and goes free.  The others are crucified and eventually drowned.  They take away Garrpe and Rodrigues escapes.  Once again, he is betrayed by Kichijiro who does it for the reward of 300 silver coins. In his prison cell, Rodrigues dreams of St. Francis but is tempted to despair.  Why is God silent?  Did he not hear the screams of those tortured and executed?

And now it is Rodrigues’ struggle on which we focus. Inoue wants him to save the other Christians by denying his faith.  He refuses and is brought to another village and people humiliate and ridicule him by throwing rotten food and yelling insults.  Kichijiro is a face in the crowd.  In the prison, Rodrigues prays with the other prisoners and hears their confessions.  In his dreams he sees Christ’s face and hears Christ’s voice: “I will not abandon you.”  Kichijiro sneaks in and says he never took the money.  He begs Rodrigues to hear his confession.  “I am sorry for being so weak,” he says, “for what I did to you.  Help me. Take away the sin.”

Again, the prisoners are told to step on the icon of Jesus.  They refuse and one is immediately beheaded.  They bring out Kichijiro.  Again he steps on the icon and goes free. When the emaciated Fr. Garrpe is brought back for Rodrigues to see, he is despondent as he was told that Rodrigues had apostatized.  Trying to save other drowning Christians, Garrpe himself drowns and Rodrigues sobs. “My God, why have you forsaken me?”  Why your silence?  And the final thrust of the sword: Fr. Ferreira appears before him.  He is now Sawano Chuan with a Japanese wife and children. He could no longer abide the suffering of others and so he apostatized. He tells Rodrigues:  “You are the last priest left, Padre.  Our roots do not take here.  This is a swamp.  They never believed. . .The other Christians died for nothing.  They died only for you Rodrigues.  You’re a disgrace, Father.”

That night Kichijiro appears again.  “Forgive me, hear my confession.” Rodrigues no longer hears silence but the moaning and screaming of the five other Christians.  They are being held upside down over the pit and blood drips from a small incision on their necks.  He is told “Do you have the right to make them suffer?  A suffering only you can end?  Apostatize.  If Christ were here, he would do it.” He then hears the voice of Jesus and sees his image in his mind’s eye.  “Come ahead now.  Step on me.  I understand your pain.  Your life is within me now.  Step.” He does so and falls over.

A Dutch trader writes of the two ex-priests, whose job now is to search for and destroy Christian images.  Ferreira dies and Rodrigues takes on a dead Japanese man’s name and his wife and son.  And, of course, Kichijio is with him in the end.  “You are the last priest.  You can still hear my confession.”  Rodrigues prays, “Lord, I fought against your silence.” And he hears Christ’s voice: “I was never silent.  I suffered beside you.”  A religious image is found on Kichijiro.  He says it must have been hidden in something he won gambling.  Was it?  Or was he truly sorry all this time?

The Dutch priest reveals that the last priest never acknowledged the Christian God, and never prayed.  In 1682, Rodrigues died, and three guards stood over his coffin.  Only his wife could see him. Before his body was burned, she placed on his person a humble mamorigatana to ward off the evil spirit.  There was no indication she wept.  The man who was once Rodrigues ended as they had wanted.  And we zoom in to see something else that his wife may have left with him – a small crucifix, one he was given years earlier, is cupped in his hand as the fire consumes him.

The image of Christ is seen by Rodrigues throughout the film.  The pleas of Kichijiro to confess and be forgiven are often heard as weak.  What was in their hearts?  Only God can answer. And only each of us can reflect on, what images of Christ are in my mind’s eye? What religious icons give me strength and hope?  When do I feel the need to experience the love, mercy and forgiveness of God? And when do I know for certain that in the silence I believe that Christ is with me?