Deconstruction of Faith: Silence (2016)

I'm sure that you must have faith to whatever religion that you believe, but have you ever asked, what is faith itself? I know the definition, but why is this abstract word can have a power so huge it can drive people to kill each other and even willing to sacrifice their own selves, in the name of it? What constructs faith? What is its essence? And the most important question, can it be taken away?

In 1633, the exploration age is in full swing. Spain, Portugal, Holland, and England are fighting for influence in japan, and they bring Christianity along with them. As a response, Japan carries out brutal, nationwide torture and persecution to foreign priests and Japanese people who embrace Christianity. In Portugal, Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garupe (Adam Driver) hear news from Father Valignano (Ciaran Hinds) that Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson), a respectable figure and their mentor, has apostatized, the act of denounce God in public and surrender the faith, in Japan. Don't believe the story and worry for Father Ferreira's safety, they decide to go to Japan to see the truth of Father Ferreira's apostasy and save his soul. What happens then? Will they succeed? Or instead, will they become the victims of persecution themselves?

First, i must disclaim that i don't intend to mock or underestimate anyone who hold their faith firmly. Even though an atheist, i also have my own faith. I respect all kind of faith, this writing is just an interpretation that i get from watching this movie.

Faith is a complex thing, so does this movie, which is a passion project of Martin Scorsese. The movie, which is based on a novel by Shusaku Endo, try to depict faith from a lot of point of view, the priests, Japanese people who embrace Christianity, Japanese officials who persecute Christianity, and those who give up their faith. To grasp the whole message, i suggest you to watch the movie yourself. Anyway, to try to explain it, i'll simplify things by using 5 W + 1 H method. So here it is.

1. Why other people must suffer?

It's easy to proclaim our faith when nothing is at stake, but what happens if your life is at stake? And i'm not talking about quick death, i'm talking about being burned alive, drowned slowly in a high tide, hanged upside down, things that make a quick decapitation seems like a bonus. If you said, "Torture is my breakfast, bring it on!", that's great, but how if anyone else who's being tortured and murdered, and you're the one who decides their fate? The second you trample on Jesus' picture in public, sign that you have surrendered your faith, their suffering end. Can you handle that burden? Those people's lives traded for your faith?

What would Jesus do if He was in your position? Didn't Jesus born into this world to share men's pain? Didn't Jesus carry the cross for their pain? What is your right to make them suffer? If somehow you still said, "I will not fall into the Spirit of Darkness' temptation, what happens to them is between them and God, i would not trample!" That's good, now let's go to the next question.

2. For whom do you keep your faith, are you sure it's for God, or instead it's for your own glory?

Isn't love an important thing too? Where is Father Rodrigues and Father Garupe's love to those people by keeping them tortured? Are they sure it's not just part of their country plan? By convert the people into Christian, it will be easier to conquer a nation, just like what Spain did in Philippines. Maybe they, who are from Portugal, plan to do the same with Japan. Besides, if they said that they love Japanese people, why don't they learn Japanese language better? Just like Father Cabral who's never managed much more than "arigataya". All the time he lived there, he taught, but would not learn. Even Father Garupe sometimes shows a little despise to Japanese people.

Don't we often do this same sin? We take much pride in preaching other people, but we never take time to learn what they need, to understand their pain and trouble. Just like someone who forces feed a kid, without caring if the kid likes the food or not. We think our believes is the most righteous, so we have the right to look down to other people's believes. Converting them is not a sign of love, but a sign of pity. We do our mission to glorify our church, our identity, our self, without caring for others' salvation.

3. What is their Christianity anyway?

Due to language barrier, often Japanese people don't fully understand what the priests said, and they end up having a wrong understanding of Christianity. They can't even grasp the basic concept of it. For example, the word "God" in Japanese is "Dainichi", which also means "sun". Japanese people cannot think of an existence beyond the realm of nature. For them, nothing transcends a human. They can't conceive the idea of a Christian God. If their perception of Christianity is a distortion from what is written in the Bible, maybe they never really become a believer in the first place, so it's okay for them to deny the faith.

But Christianity is also guilty by this kind of distortion. According to Jewish tradition, Sabbath should falls on Friday, but the holiest day to pagan religion which was practiced by German and Anglo-Saxon people fell on Sunday (because they worshiped sun, therefore "sun" day). So, in order to make Christianity accepted easier by pagan people, Roman people decided to change Sabbath to Sunday. Does that mean Christian people are also never become a believer in the first place, and it's okay for them to deny their faith?

Maybe religion can never be separated from politics. Or maybe religion is nothing but political tool and propaganda in the first place.

4. Where do you spread the Christianity?

Why Europeans are so eager to spread Christianity in Japan in the first place anyway? Don't they know that Japanese people are already rooted strongly in Buddhism? That they have embraced it for so long and they are seem just fine and can live peacefully and orderly with it? Again, why are they so arrogant to think that their religion is so much better, other country that have lived for centuries with another belief must convert into European's religion? The way i see it, with the persecution and all, Japanese people are far better when Christianity hasn't been preached into their country.

Maybe the interpreter (Tadanobu Asano) who's assigned to oversee Father Rodrigues is right, that Christianity is of no use and of no value in Japan, instead it is a danger. Rather than a selfish dream of Christian Japan, why not Europeans try to learn about Buddhism, which is the path of mercy, who teaches to abandon self. To help others is the way of the Buddha, not far different with Jesus, so why convert it? Besides, no one should interfere with another man's spirit, as the interpreter said, "It is not necessary to win anyone over to one side or another when there is so much to share." As a saying in Japan, "Mountains and rivers can be moved, but man's nature cannot be moved," maybe they'll find human's original nature in Japan, and perhaps it's what's meant by finding God.

5. When God will answer?

Amidst all those suffering and struggles, why God, if He really exist, just keeps silent? Does He hear their screams? How can you explain His silence to these people who have endured so much? Why is the weigh of God's silence so terrible, and the answers Father Rodrigues give them seem so weak, the Japanese Christian value signs of faith more than faith itself. All they have is promise that all their suffering would not end in nothingness, and every time they sacrifice themselves, it seems that they die for the priests instead for Jesus. Is this what faith is, just false promises to endure hard life? It's as if you are praying for nothing, because God isn't there.

In those condition, maybe there's another, better way of how we perform our faith. Instead of fight against His silence, perhaps we should praise Him in silence, just between us and God. And maybe, it's in the silence that we hear God's voice said, "I suffered beside you, I was never silent."