Called to Speak for the Lord

silence-1Martin Scorsese’s powerful film Silence presents the moving story of Jesuit priests Sebastian Rodrigues and Francisco Garupe. Set in the seventeenth century, the movie presents the story of these two Portuguese Jesuits and their search for their spiritual father, Jesuit priest Father Cristovao Ferreira. Father Ferreira had been sent to Japan as a missionary for the Christian faith. After he had spent some time there, word comes back to the Jesuits that Father Ferreira had fallen into apostasy, the sin of denying the faith. Father Sebastian and Father Francisco, his two devoted students, cannot believe that their spiritual father could possibly fall into apostasy and insist that the story of his fall is only a rumour or a malicious slander. They beg to go to Japan to discover the truth or to save their friend. At first their religious superior is dead set against them going on this dangerous mission. However they insist on going to find the truth or to save their friend. As their superior becomes convinced that their desire to go has been placed in their heart by the Holy Spirit, they are given permission and set out on their great mission.

As they arrive in Japan it is clear that they are in danger. The Japanese officials are persecuting all Christians greatly. They are especially concerned to persecute the priests and leaders of the small hidden Catholic communities. There is a reward of 100 silver pieces for any Christian who is turned in, 200 for the lay leaders and 300 for the priests. The Japanese are trying to stamp out Christianity because they believe it is a European threat to their traditional way of life. As these priests arrive, it is amazing to see how loved they are by the small hidden communities because they bring Christ and His saving Word. These small Christian communities hide the priests and protect them with their lives so that they may know God’s Word and sacraments through their ministry. Many Catholics die protecting the priests and ensuring their safety.

silence-andrew-garfieldAs the persecutions of the Christian Catholics make up a great part of the story, one would suspect that the Japanese leaders would also want to kill as many priests as possible. In a brilliant strategy, however, the Japanese officials have an even more important goal in mind when they capture a priest. They do not actually want to kill the priests, but they are determined to get the priests to deny the faith and take up the Buddhist religion. The Japanese officials do not care if they kill Japanese people. However, they know that if they kill a priest he will be a martyr and hero for the faith. Instead, they know that if the priests will deny their faith, then the people will not believe and think that Christianity is foolish. The priests in the movie are not afraid to die for their faith, so the way in which the Japanese get the priests to deny their faith is by forcing them to witness the torture and execution of the people they have been sent to save. The Japanese officials treat the priests with great hospitality as they force them to watch their people being tortured and murdered. They tell the priests that the suffering of their people will end as soon as they deny the faith and take up the Japanese way of life.

In my mind, one of the most brilliant artistic techniques used in telling this story is the friendly smile that the elderly Japanese governor is always wearing on his face as he travels around to torture and kill Catholics. When he enters a town or sits in judgement over the Christians, the governor, who is also the inquisitor, has a beautiful and grandfatherly like kind smile. He acts as though he is a kind old man just casually passing out death sentences and torturing people. As he does so, he acts like he will be doing the Jesuit priests a huge favour by inviting them to deny the faith and give up their way of life. He pretends like he has no interest in torturing people and if the Jesuits just did what he was asking all this suffering and messiness would be over. Ultimately, the Jesuits do give up their faith as a way of ending the persecution of the other Christians. Once they have, they are given wives and a very comfortable way of life so that everyone might see that they denied their Western faith and embraced the Japanese way of life. For the rest of their lives they live as captives who are shown off in order to destroy the faith in Japan.

For me this movie has a powerful message for today. I think we live in a society that wants nothing more than the silence of Christians. The media present a message that is so contrary to Christian values. Every day we are barraged with messages that depict the human being as a sexual object. Despite the way in which the media constantly contradicts the value of the human person as a being made in the image and likeness of God, as soon as a religious person or Christian leader falls into the trap that the media celebrates, this becomes headline news. Often the greatest story for the newspapers is a Christian who has fallen into the trap set by the media and society. It seems to me that so many good Christians are afraid to speak about their faith for fear of being judged or called a hypocrite. Even in our conversations, people are judged at work and and in school for expressing any kind of faith or conviction. One of the reasons why I liked this smiling Japanese official who smiled while he was trying to silence the Christian faith is that this is the way our own society often acts. In the name of political correctness there is a kind of niceness in our culture which smiles at the world as it attempts to silence the expression of any kind of faith inspired values. Political correctness attempts to silence Christianity and any expression of it. Those who become the most celebrated in our society are often those people who fight for the abolition of all Christian values. We have seen this with the gradual erosion of respect for the human person and the value of life. The most recent example of this has been the move to allow the killing of vulnerable persons in the name of mercy. These murders are to be allowed because they are kind. One of the worst things that can happen to our society and to our faith is when Christians are silent.

The importance of Christians speaking out is a theme that runs through our scriptures this weekend. In the first reading from the book of the Prophet Isaiah, we hear how the prophet is sent by the Lord to speak to the people of Israel. The job of the prophet is to raise the people up to their dignity as God’s people by calling them to be who they were created to be. The prophet is to be the light in the world that speaks the truth. Through our baptism and confirmation, each one of us has been anointed by the Spirit and are called to speak God’s message in the world. That is what we are sent to do after every Mass when we are dismissed. One of the forms of dismissal at Mass is: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” So often when we find ourselves in situations where we wander what to say or who should be the one to speak in certain situations we can find the answer in today’s Psalm response— “Here I am Lord, I come to do your will.” When and if we wander who should speak God’s word in a certain situation, in all likelihood it is us who have been sent to speak and be present in that situation. As Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, we are all of us called to be saints and to work for the building of the Kingdom of God’s peace. The example of how we are to speak is given by John the Baptist who announces the coming of Christ into the world. John the Baptist is the model of the prophet that each one of us should be as we are called by our baptisms to announce Christ’s presence to the world. The true Christian is one who is called like John the Baptist to announce Christ’s coming into the world wherever we may be sent in the course of our days. Like John the Baptist the Christian is the one who is called not to be silent.

I believe we are living in an age that desires nothing more than the silence of good Christians. We are led to believe that in the name of political correctness the nice thing for all Christians to do is be quite and get along with a smile. That is why our newspapers celebrate so joyfully the fall of a Christian or any story that discredits Christians or the Church. By our baptisms and confirmations, however, we are all called and sent to speak the message of faith in the world. This week, I would invite you to think about those places where you are silent and the Lord might be inviting you to speak. There are times in our workplaces, schools and families that we all fail to speak about our faith and Christ’s love for all people. To speak out does not mean that we have to be rude or disrespectful. It simply means that in love and charity we learn to speak the truth. All of our Popes in recent times have been tremendous examples of speaking the truth in love. Pope Francis or Pope Benedict have often spoken very strong truths about life, but they do so with mercy and charity. There are different ways that all of us are called to speak about our faith and witness to it so that we might help to make Christ’s love known in the areas of the world where we are sent each week. In those situations we are called to make the words of the Psalmist our own by saying to the Holy Spirit as we are called to speak and witness: “Here I am, Lord: I come to do your will.” One of the most dangerous things for the Church and our faith is when good Christians remain silent because they are afraid to speak about their faith. The secular world loves it when Christians are silent. However as Christ has called each of us to share in His mission of spreading the Gospel and announcing the Good News, it must be clear that silence is not an option for the Christian.

May God give all of us the grace of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses of His love.

Fr. Michael McGourty
Paster— St. Peter’s Parish— Toronto