Rant

Reading Silence for me has been a struggle in a lot of different ways. For me, it does not feel like an honors work. Instead, it feels more like a book I should be reading in intercultural studies. In fact I was telling Dr. Wilson this today. He said he might look into it. Nevertheless, Silence touches on a lot of things we have been discussing in terms of crossing cultures for extended periods of time: culture shock, loss of routine, potential persecution, appropriate boldness, building relationships, Type I and Type II cultural dilemmas, hot climate vs. cold climate, so on and so forth. As an individual bound for cross cultural work, I keep thinking that this story is real and that it is not merely a novel. I mean, the last book I read on crossing cultures in deadly persecution was Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot.

As Malory Green was saying in class the other day, I, too, have been wondering what I would do in their shoes. Would I trample? Does the concept of trampling the fumie even matter to me? Is that a social conditioning for me as a Protestant? Why don't the physical aspects matter to me? and should they or shouldn't they? If I trample, is it because I am bold in my faith? Don't we walk by faith and not by sight? Isn't the fumie just another sight?

Like Sara, I went through and circled the times I saw the word "face" in the text. A while back I read this novel by Ted Dekker called Blessed Child, which is about a boy named Caleb who while narrating says he walks in the kingdom while he prays. I remember that at the time, I wanted that. I wanted my prayer life to be that powerful that I was walking with God in the kingdom while I prayed, that I could see it the way Dekker describes Caleb doing. I kind of felt that way again as Rodrigues starts talking about the face of Christ. I have never really thought about what Christ's face looked like in certain situations. My thoughts on His face are simple. I imagine a stereotypical Jewish face of almost a sombre expression. I mean, we sing songs all the time about seeking His face, but do we actually do that? Am I so whole-heartedly seeking after the Lord that I even seek to know the details of His face though I am still in my humanity?

All in all, to me Silence is about prayer. One thing that does not seem to fall out of the plot is Rodrigues's prayer life despite the seeming silence of God. God speaks in strange ways: through people, through situations, etc. etc. I am guilty of not seeing things until later, and frankly, I look for His responses in ways that I can understand and comprehend, not necessarily the ways He chooses.

COMMENTED ON MALLORY'S

I am sorry. I am aware this is late.

I Will Never Be Silent

This book is so epic! Just the persecution aspect in itself is enough to change someone's life. When we accept Christ as our Savior we accept a call to be willing do what these people did. Not all of then obviously but the willingness to go and to do anything to share the good news of Christ. I personally want to be a missionary overseas so this makes me think a whole lot. If it came down to it would I be willing to die for the cause of Christ is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. I think god is calling me to plant churches in India. The country is tolerant of other religions for the most part but there are radical Muslims in the country and intolerant people of other religious backgrounds so reading the book kind of puts me on edge. I know though that being called and accepting that as part of my requirements as a Christian there is no way that I could stay silent about God.

I commented on Susan's post

The Brother and The Bear

One section that I loved (which potentially may end up relating to my research paper topic) was The Brother, where Jesus sets a new standard for murder--but even more so for love. He seems to hint at controversial subjects, such as race, when he says: "The brother's life as a divine ordinance, and God alone has power over life and death... for the follower of Jesus there can be no limit as to who is his neighbor except as the Lord decides." In his time, he was taking a stand against Hitler's treatment of the Jews as well as the Civil Rights movement going on in America. I am hoping to somehow pull a Mitchell and relate this to Faulkner's "The Bear" and the statements it makes on slavery and racism. I believe that Faulkner was arguing against slavery--not because of the damage that the absence of it caused, but because it left a curse on the land. The degradation of their fellow man left the slaveholders unable to bear the guilt as time went on, for ultimately Ike realized the weight of his and his ancestor's actions: murder. Essentially, I believe Bonhoeffer was trying to warn his fellow countrymen about such actions to prevent the ultimate judgement of their souls.

I commented on Mallory's apostatizing thing...

Never Silent

I have so much to say, I don’t quite know what to say. Silence changed my life in so many ways, and I’ve only read it once. I know if I read it again, my entire worldview will shift once again. Sara and Kala brought up so many questions I hadn’t even considered, and the questions I already had weren’t answered. I think I could discuss this book continuously and still have more things to talk about.

In class the other day, we were discussing Kichijiro and his being compared to Judas. As we were discussing it, a passage on the last page caught my eye. It was where Kichijiro was begging Rodrigues, yet again, to give him the sacraments. And suddenly, Kichijiro became the character I most related to. He was consistently apostatizing and yet he consistently crawled back to beg for forgiveness. And I realized that’s me. That’s every one of us who says that we’re a Christian.

We are consistently sinning and consistently crawling back to God, begging for His grace and forgiveness. And we, just as Kichijiro, don’t deserve for God to forgive once, let alone time after time, and yet He always does. He never turns His back on us when we need Him, and even though we may not hear Him, He is never truly silent. He is always beside us, even as we suffer with these annotated bibliographies, and multiple other homework assignments.

Until tomorrow,

~Meghan

P.S. I commented on Rachel’s post Maundy Tuesday

Love or an excuse for self-weakness?

     I'm still struggling with the question, did the priest apostatize to out of love or self-weakness? Endo was a masterful writer to leave the me and others contemplating this question.
     Rodrigues seems at first like a hero. For the first time he saw Jesus as not a strong suffering man, but a man weak from exhaustion, that said, "It's ok I love you anyways". So he trampled on the fumie. Was this apostasy?  He seems not to apostatize to save himself but the people slowly dying in The Pit. He seems to have sacrificial love for the people. After all isn't that what were suppose to do? Love God then people?
     However this brings another question to my mind...What about other martyrs that have died, refusing to apostatize, even when the lives of others were at stake? Did they not love the other people and put themselves above others? I don't think so. In Matthew 10:33 it says, "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.". So what does this mean for the priest, or the people in the pit that have already apostatize. Are they condemned to hell? I don't think so either. There have been many martyrs that have apostatize during torture, but then recanted and returned to Christ to be living sacrifices, and eventually became martyrs. 
    But did Rodrigues do that? Did he continue to serve God with his life, or did he continue down a slippery slope? There are so many unanswered questions that Endo leaves me with. I still can't decide if it was love or self-weakness. 

Thoughts about Silence

Books like these bring up topics that people can feel uncomfortable talking about. It brings up conversation that is edgy and a delicate topic. Subjects such as these tend to just be swept under the rug. One thing that I think about is the persecution that still goes on today- there is probably so much that goes on that no one knows about. In Vietnam for example churches are stil in secret and underground. Followers of Christ are put in jail and are threatened with violence against themselves and thier families. If that happened here in the US it would have media attention and wouldn't be tolerated. This novel reminds me of the book Night.

Concluding Silence

I think what is staying with me about Silence right now is the discussion of making Christianity relevant to the culture it is being introduced to. This is a pretty elementary thing, but missionaries should know that you cannot waltz into a place declaring that the heathen need to be saved and turn them into westerns. Now, I am not trying to be insensitive to the work of the Japanese missionaries of Silence. In fact, they probably did this less than most. I bringing this up just for us all to consider the implications. I rant and rant on my missionary soap box. To a degree we do not have to change the gospel. After all, it has the power to pierce to the depths etc... but the only way it can stick is if we realize what is nitty gritty and necessary and what is culture. I just started a job at a Thai restaurant and there are many types of people there. Some are Buddhist, and quite honestly, really western Buddhists having lived in America for quite sometime and even have children older than myself who were born and raised in the states. Far be it from me to compare my struggles with the tortures of the people in Silence... I don't see them forcing me to apostatize but I do share similarities with the Silence characters in being in the Asian-esque. I guess right now I am in a neat place (how ever minutely) in the realm of Silence.

Commented on Rachel's

spotlight and silence

There have been two of many worthwile tasks that have consumed my time the last few weeks have been shooting for our silent(ironic?) film(which im pretty excited about), and Silence. Silence has brought up a question at the end of the book that everyone has probably asked themselves, and that is, what would you do in that situation? The truth is, I can't answer that question. I have a hard enough time answering why I deny Christ and let myself do what is easy, as opposed to what is right. Every time i sin, I deny What Christ has done for me. I would say that I have failed miserably in the respect that we are to love our brother as ourself. If I can't stand for Christ for my own sake, how will I be able to stand for Christ at the cost of others? Who is to say that by denying him and sinning, those consequences will not effect the people I love; was David any different when he took the census? At any rate, this is how my gears have been running after the last few discussions in class...



p.s. I commented on Nicholas Sean Hampton's post.

The Faces of God

In class we discussed how the Pastor's view of Jesus' face changed throughout his life. At first he saw Jesus as a powerful savior who rules over the Earth, to a man beaten and bruised with a face filled with suffering. This caused the pastor to see Jesus at one point as more like a man than the all powerful savior of the world. We do this in society today all the time. We pick and choose which attributes of God we want to focus on at different times and for different reasons. We may focus on the Jesus who is merciful and kind, or the one who is loving towards the poor and needy, the Jesus who is jealous of us, or the one that is full of wrath, and so on and so on. I believe it is wrong to only focus on one part of God. It is important that we know and understand all of him to truly understand how awesome and powerful He is. The pastor began to lose faith because he only focused on the suffering God at one time. He forgot that the reason Jesus suffered was to save all sinners in the world and to come. We Christians must strive to know all of God, in order to completely appreciate Him and know Him.

I commented on Samuel Weeks

-Susan Berner

Theology Major's Time to Shine!! Hazzah!

So, I get back from Christmas break, I step foot in the familiar classroom and see many smiling faces of which I haven't seen in nearly a month, and I get ready for some life-changing literature. The first week passes, and then the second. We go through the fundamental basis of Metaphysics, we journey through Elliot's wasteland, and then we get into Faulkner, and I found myself saying, "I know this is not a Christian Lit. class, but where's the Jesus in all of this? This is a Christian campus by the way!" However, Last week, the Jesus started to flow in abundance, first with Endo in "Silence", and now with Bonhoeffer's "Cost of Discipleship". The Baptist in me is giddy with excitement.

One thing that I noticed early on with Endo is the emphasis on Sacrifice. I found similar arguments in Bonhoeffer, especially in Chapter 6 with the Beatitudes. This is a passage about midway down the page on page 107 of Bonhoeffer:

"Jesus Sees his disciples. They have publicly left the crowd to join him. He has called them, every one, and they have renounced everything at his call. Now they are living in want and privation, the poorest of the poor, the sorest afflicted, and the hungriest of the hungry. They have only him, and with him they have nothing, literally nothing in the world, but everything with and through God."

The disciples had literally abandoned everything else in there life for this man who claimed to be God's son. It says in Matthew 4:21-22: "

"Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them,and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him."

Like we were reading with Frankl last week, meaning is split into 3 categories: Work, Suffering, and Love. The disciples left all three of these things. They left their jobs, where they probably would lose great wealth. Matthew in particular, as a tax collector, would lose considerable fortune. They also left their homes, left their riches, and left their families to follow this man. The disciples left what made up meaning in their life for a greater meaning: to serve and follow Christ.

I think it says a lot that there were only 12 disciples. There were not a great multitude of people who stayed commited to Jesus throughout his ministry. People do not want to give up their meanings and their lives for another person. Take for example the rich man who was told to sell his possessions to the poor in exchange for eternal life, and he refused. He was not able to give up his temporary meaning on Earth.

This leads me to a hard-to-swallow questions: Is society today willing to sacrificed for God? A harder question: Am I willing to sacrifice my possessions and what I want for Christ? Can I give up what is giving me temporary pleasure and meaning for something eternal?

My thoughts

Warning: this blog is random pondering with no real conclusion.

While reading Silence, I had no issues with grasping or connecting with the idea of persecution itself. I plan to one day serve as a missionary, and persecution is something I have to seriously be aware of and consider. However, the picture of Jesus and the relevance of said picture honestly baffled me. I am aware that I am coming from a protestant mindset, but no matter what I do, I cannot wrap my mind around the significance it holds for these people. All my life, I have pretty much been told that no one really has a truly accurate depiction of Jesus, and although I am not 100% certain of this fact, this makes it even harder to understand why there is so much importance placed on a picture that kind of looks like what we think Jesus looked like. To me, it looks almost as if they are worshiping the image of Christ rather than Christ himself. So while I feel in some ways that stepping on the picture wouldn't be a big deal, I also feel that in the context of Silence, trampling the picture would be wrong because it is, in that scenario, denying Christ. On the other hand, I feel as if it could be equally as bad to NOT step on the picture for the wrong reasons.

Can't Come Up With a Good Title

A few things have been eating at me for the past few days. After honors on Tuesday, I heard Dr. Schuler talking about the ones who say that Christianity can't survive Japanese culture, or any Asian culture, for that matter. He went on to say that the very ones who say that it can't are stifling the growth of the gospel in Japan. What I wanted to do here was back him up with a verse. Matthew 12:30 says "He who is not for me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." He's right.

Ben (just giving credit where credit is due) said it needed to be a Bonsai tree if it wanted to grow in Japan. I thought about it for a while and I remembered that Bonsai trees need constant care and attention, or else they die. Once you plant a Bonsai in a pot, you have to monitor it every day. This is true for all Christianity, not just Asian Christianity. It needs care and attention, like a plant, like a child, like a relationship, and like a functioning machine. This is because it is all these things. It grows, it lives, it creates bonds, and it does its purpose, which is to draw us closer to God, not just ourselves, but all of humanity. Well, that's just what I wanted to elaborate on. I know it has very little to do with the reading; it's just something I've been chewing on for a while.

Cody Martin

Commented on Samuel Weeks' "Shoes I Hope to Never Be in"

Only the Strong Survive

"If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes."
-Corrie Ten Boom

I planned on commenting on Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship because so far I have really enjoyed it and I can tell it will continue to shape my faith much in the way C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity has. However, I am bound against my will to Silence, which is to say I have found myself tied to a post and forced to face the crushing black waves of life in such a way that I have no choice but to recomment on Endo's seminal masterpiece. One of the major conflicts in the novel, and I mentioned this in class yesterday, is between the idea that there are strong people and weak people, which in this case is Rodrigues and Kichijiro, respectively. Rodrigues, knowing that death faces him at any moment, forces himself to be strong and resolute with the sort of naivety and blind courage only a missionary can muster, because he knows that when he is captured he must not allow himself to break or he will apostasize and, in his mind, betray God and the Church he loves so dearly. Kichijiro, on the other hand, has no such commitments and lives sort of as a drifter, allowing himself to be susceptible to bribery and aggressive persuasion. As a result, he cracks easily and apostatiszes several times, causing him to repeatedly return to Rodrigues for absolvement, whereas Rodrigues himself only breaks when he hears God himself speak and when he realizes that he can no longer allow other people to suffer and die because of him.

So when and why should a man be strong? Is a man born with fortitude and conviction, or must he find such things from an outside source? Is it possible that God puts us in situations where we know we cannot stand on our own and can only be victorious if we turn to him. Oh, sure, we can survive something on our own merits, but there's a fine line between survival and conquest and I believe God offers us the latter. I bring this up because I too struggle with weakness and strength in my own actions and self perception. I like to believe that I can't be bent beyond my limits, so I take on things thinking I will succeed regardless. I also like to think that I can always be fearless and always stand firm and resolute no matter what, and I have always cited the Holy Spirit as the source of my strength. There are certain times, however, and today was one of them, where that breaks down completely and I realize how vulnerable and how weak I can truly be.

It's that point where you realize how little control of your circumstances you have, and all you can control is your reaction to it, especially in regards to the Lord. For example, today I could have let myself bend under stress when filming started to temporarily derail, but I found my composure in the Lord and His blessings, and I realized that, much like Rodrigues, I am not control, nor am I truly strong, but neither am I weak. I am called to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, and I have to leave control to Him and do what I know I have to do. Rodrigues had to face that realization in the "trample" scene-he had to make a choice, and he knew that if the grace of God was anywhere near as powerful as he proclaimed it was, he knew it would likewise cover him. Yes, to save the lives of those that were lost, Jesus would have (and He did) laid down His life-we don't need to be strong, nor are we bound to weakness. We are strong against the trials and temptations of this life, but weak in His prescence so that He may be glorified.

Thank you for reading, feel free to comment as you please, I commented on Josh Spell's Samurai Vs. Catholics.

Debating With Myself???

In all honesty, I have no yet finished Silence, but after yesterday’s discussion, I really want to. One thing that has stuck with me and is pushing me to want to read the story is one of the ideas that was brought up yesterday in class. The thought of a conflict between loving God and loving people.

For us, this is not a battle that we face often, if ever, and it is definitely not a struggle that we think about in our culture. We, 21st Century American Christians, have probably never had to make any decision where the options are: A) defame Christ with our actions to save others who had professed a love for Him at some point, or B) do not defame Christ and let the others be tortured with no hope.

My thought is merely that I cannot wrap my mind around the idea of this choice. Which is showing more love and devotion to Christ? Yes, trampling the cross to save others seems to be pushing Christ down. However, in Matthew, Jesus said, “...as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” This leads me to think that leaving people to be tortured is also pushing Christ down.

All day, these thoughts were going around in my head and I find myself at a common point with the honors alumni who spoke yesterday. Every time I think about this, I argue points with myself and my position on the issue changes...

PS I posted on Mallory Searcy's "Apostatize..."

shoes i hope to never be in

The Priest in silence is no doubt in what we might call "a pickle." The decision he is forced to make at the end of the book is one i truly hope i never have to make. On one hand, he maintains his faith and doesn't give in to the torture, and has to live the rest of his life knowing that the other christians were killed and he could have prevented it, and on the other hand, he publicly renounces his faith but in doing so saves the lives of the other christians. Now, the debate arises of whether what he did was right or not. If we looked at the situation biblically, then it would seem that what he did was wrong. All other things excluded, he publicly committed an act of denial of his faith. I would assert though, that if it was his life that was on the line, then what he did would absolutely be wrong. As christians, we are called to value our faith in Christ above our very lives; " to live is Christ, to die is gain." An important point to make however, is that he did so on behalf of other christians, an ironically Christ like act. He took the burden of that sin upon himself to save the others. Does that make certain forms of sin permissible if it is to the end that others may live? I'm not entirely sure i would say yes. If that question were to be answered yes, then by extension, a good enough end can indeed be justified by wrong means.

On the other hand, one could easily argue that that was not the priest's place to intervene. Although it seems callous and selfish, if he were to have allowed the other christians to suffer, then he would not have denied his faith, but at the expense of others. Some would say that this would have been the right decision because his chief concern should always be maintaining Christ as the utmost purpose and priority in his life regardless of all other circumstances. But then again, this option seems like he would have been allowing others to suffer and even die only so that he could remain without that sin, a seemingly selfish act.

The central question dealt with here is this: is it right to remain without sin and in doing so cause others to suffer and even die or commit sin so that others may live?

Truth be told, i have no idea what i would do, hence the title of this post.

p.s. I commented on Mallory's

Definition of suffering

The question that we looked at concerning the priest was whether you can love Christ and watch Christians suffer? (Decisions define suffering)The priest expected suffering, but it was as if he expected it too much. Did he even know what suffering is?
   All this talk about suffering and I can't help but wonder do I even know what suffering is. Looking at Christ for example, God allowed his son to come and pay the penalty for our sin, because He loved us THAT much. Whoa! It seems to me that it is more of a thing of sacrifice. God sacrificed his son for us. Where does suffering come in to that? Well, Jesus suffered for us on the cross. It was a very brutal suffering.
  Bringing this back to the priest in Silence, he was watching Christians suffer and therefore had to make the decision on whether or not he could love Christ AND watch Christians suffer. The priest "denied himself" for a spiritual martyrdom. He sought to die, yet he sought this too much.
   So, what does it really mean to suffer? I feel like real suffering is what Christ did for us on the cross. Its the ultimate picture of him suffering for us. A martyr? Maybe yes, but it was a sacrifice Christ chose to make because he loved us so much.
   The priest's decision on whether or not you can love Christ and watch Christians suffer was more of a display of martyrdom and a sacrifice.
   I feel like I'm rambling now, I hope this makes a little sense.
  P.s i commented on Anna's "Pursuing Truth in the Most Unexpected Places"

apostatize. hard to say, harder to spell.

For me the concept of apostatizing is one that I haven't been able to move past. I mean, I understand that it is denying Christ, but at the same time- it changes nothing about the belief of the person who says it, right? I mean, I know this is the limited worldview of mine speaking, but it seems like faith is a very personal experience. Conversion, decision to follow Christ- can that ever be taken away? I mean with the Japanese, these are men and women who love Christ with all their hearts and are tortured for it, and then finally give in. Is that a reflection of their love of Christ or is that a reflection of Japanese torture methods? Is it an example of eternally not following God- or a moment of weakness when physical ability gave out?

just some thoughts.

i Commented on Maundy Thursday

Realizing LOVE

The concept of spiritual martyrdom brought up in class yesterday intrigued me. While reading Silence I continually tried to reconcile “Whoever denies me before men, I will deny him before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:33) and “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay day his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). However, Malory put into words a thought that had been on the tip of my tongue since the beginning of this dilemma. The only biblical precedent for sacrificing oneself for the good of others is found in Christ. He died for sinners- not just the repentant ones- all of them. Jesus was willing to risk separation from God for our salvation. I personally think his most agonizing suffering was when he was hanging on the cross, the weight of the world’s sin covering him, and God turned his face away because he could not look on our sin. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:34). At this point Jesus’ perfect connection with the Father was severed because God could not be in a relationship with sin. The agony embodied in this verse never fails to move me- truly this was the moment when unconditional love was realized. The priest spent the majority of his time in Japan seeing himself as the Christ-figure, a Savior, and exalting himself above the other believers because of his title. However, it wasn’t until he lost his title that he truly understood love. When he was willing to give up the symbols and appearances of religion that had constituted his faith by trampling the fumie, he was also sacrificing his knowledge of faith –all for the life others. He became like Christ when he lowered himself to the position of a sinful believer instead of a priestly martyr. Those others had already apostatized, so what was the point of risking his faith for them? This is where spiritual martyrdom comes in- Christ gave up his perfect relationship with Christ and died for those he knew would one day reject his gift of grace. This is where we see the theme that we are not saved by religious symbols but by faith. Undying, unwavering, incomprehensible faith. The priest’s faith is what gives him hope of redemption and resurrection. Although Endo doesn’t say, I think according to how the priest lived afterward, he did still have faith. “Sharing in the suffering of Christ” for the priest was not physical, rather it was mental and spiritual martyrdom of his previously held notions of religion, eclipsed by the realization of love in the figure of Christ.
“No doubt his fellow priests would condemn his act as sacrilege; but even if he was betraying them, he was not betraying his Lord. He loved him now in a different way from before. Everything that had taken place until now had been necessary to bring him to this love. ‘Even now I am the last priest in this land. But our Lord was not silent. Even if he had been silent, my life until this day would have spoken of him.’” (191 emphasis added)
P.S. commented on Anna’s “Pursuing Truth…”

Maundy Thursday

On September 25, 1992 I was baptized exactly 6 months after my birth, I had my first communion in first grade, my confirmation in 8th grade, and I still enjoy Holy Eucharist on Sunday. Although, there are major differences between the Roman Catholic faith that permeates Silence, and my own Episcopal/Anglican background I do think I really understood some of the struggles within the novel in a different way. This comes in part from the fact that I have seriously wondered some of these same questions since attending a private Bible church Christian school calls into question much of what one has always believed- but I digress.

I could write a paper about the sacraments and the beauty of the symbols, however, I will instead simply define the word, (as per Episcopalian Catechism, although I believe the definition is quite universal) "A Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace". Let me debunk for a moment the misunderstanding that all 7 sacraments are necessary for salvation, this is impossible because one of the sacraments is ordination and one is marriage and clearly not everyone is a priest nor is everyone married.

The most beautiful picture of physical earthly representations of Christ to me is the Maundy Thursday service. At the end of this service the priest and altar guild strips the altar. In the dark during the reading of Psalm 55 every thing that would make the church look like a church is taken out. This service is supposed to incite the parishioners to imagine life without Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. As the lights raise, everyone is quiet and somber as they leave for the end of Holy week. In Silence, I believe as the stark reality of the church and Rodriguez's denial of Christ personifies the Holy Week experience both in the text of the Bible and exemplified in the liturgical worship.

PS Anglicans ARE Evangelical.

I commented on Anna's "Pursuing Truth in the Most Unexpected Places"

Pursuing Truth in the Most Unexpected Places

A new appreciation of honors has welled up in me. Never has the saying, “Pursuing the Truth, (the John 3:14 Truth) been as tangible to me as it was today. Honors always pushes me to develop a taste for great literature by reading great literature and Silence is one of those works. Over the past couple of days all my classes have tied in to my spiritual life. Verses I read in the morning were mentioned as I took notes in my afternoon class. How cool is that! The verse mentioned was Matthew 22:37-40, “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” I wrote the verse in my journal Monday morning. I was trying to memorize it and I made up handy illustrations to go with it to help me memorize. I took it seriously enough however, little did I know it would take on a whole new meaning the next day.

You can imagine my excitement when the verse was mentioned in class today. You can also probably empathize with my disappointment as I started to understand how the verse applied to the Priest’s situation. The priest was almost caught between the two commandments. He was faced with the decision. Would he love God, and watch people die or would he, seemingly, turn away from God and love his neighbor? What a terrible situation. Eventually he chooses to trample despite the fact that he is risking eternal damnation. This of course leads you to the verse, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Luke 15:13). As I was talking over spiritual martyrdom with Amanda I realized, oh my goodness this is the very situation Jesus was faced with. Yes, it may seem obvious and we did talk about it in class but at that moment I truly realized what the Way the Truth and the Life faced. He faced abandoning God in order for me to have a chance at a relationship with God. He faced spiritual death in order for me to spiritual life. That is heavy. That is beautiful. Keep plugging guys. We'll journey through sources and sources, and pages and pages, but it's all worth it when things suddenly make sense in the most unexpected places.

Samurai Vs. Catholics

Fuedal Japan, 1637: three Catholic priests go to the "Land of the Rising Sun" to aid the struggling converts and to investigate the defection of Jesuit missionary Christovao Ferreira. Hostile to Western influence, the samurai afflict the Catholics with brute force, while the converts are unable to do anything except suffer the evils that befall them.

It seems to me that the samurai in Endo's Silence view Catholicism the same way Americans view kudzu: as an invasive agent to be rooted out and sent back where it came from. Here, the war between samurai and Catholics is not a war of equal powers but a war of attrition to see if Japanese Christians will outlast persecution.

As history would later show, they would not. The Shimabara Rebellion would come, and Catholicism, due to its foreignness, would fail to last in the "mud swamp" of Japan (though perhaps it may one day take a new form that is more palatable to the Far East).

Click to enlarge.

EDIT: I commented on Nick Hampton's "Debating with Myself???"

Silence

I read Silence in just a few days, however there are many things that linger in my mind. I was able to look through the class and know a few people who want to go over seas into full time ministry. It really hits home. The question stands, "How can one apostatize?" Would I ever do that? It hits hard. we want to say we never would, but truth be told we will not know unless faced with that circumstance. What about the people that the priest heard screaming? The only reason they were hanging still was because he would apostatize... I pray that our faith in God would help us make the right call, I know what I pray my answer would be. What do you pray your answer would be? It is one of those things I feel like we have to decided before hand to hold to, just like purity. You have decide before you get in a relationship to stay pure. Before being in a situation where you must decided to hold to your faith or renounce it you need to know where you stand. I could keep writing because these are only a few of the many questions I actually had. However, these were the biggest one that kept my mind running.
"For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20
Silence is a matter of perspective...

PS -Amanda G.