Silence
Martin Scorsese’s Silence is about religion in Japan and also about faith in God. How far will one go to preach the Gospel? Are you still holy if you don’t follow the faith faithfully every day of your life?
I’ve been silent on this film for several weeks now since I saw it at the theatre back in January. It is a difficult film to understand. At first, it is a straight story about missionary priests in Japan fighting to bring the Church to a country which is actively hostile to their teachings. Then you wonder why the country is so antithetical to the religion. Is it because of how it brings hope to the lowest in society? Or is it because the Japanese at the time where prejudiced against the West?
It is a film that asks us about our faith but also about our own prejudice. Should we all be so humble in life? And so strong in our faith.
There was a character who kept failing to not renounce Christ — the Japanese doubting Thomas. To avoid persecution, he would deny that he was a believer. Yet, he kept coming back to the faith. Was he faithful or faithless?
The priests who renounced Christ, the ending revealed that maybe he was still a man of Christ. Was he faithful or faithless?
In the end, it is redemption that is available to all of Christ’s children.
3 of 5 stars.
