VERDEFLOR, SOPHIA MARIE D.

BSAC2 OCTOBER 29, 2019

1907 CFE 103 8:00-9:30 PM TTH MR. JESTER PAUL L. LINGBAWAN

“God speaks in the silence of the heart” – Mother Theresa:

A Reflection Paper on the Movie “Silence”

The 2016 film entitled “Silence” directed by Martin Scorsese revolves around the two
priests who travelled to Japan to find their missing mentor, Father Cristovao Ferreira, who
committed apostasy after being tortured for his faith. The setting of the film was in Japan during
the time when the Christianity was suppressed and forbidden. Hence, this made the faith of the
Japanese Christians tested and challenged.
Clearly, the film managed to show to its viewers how to be missionary in such a way that
was shown in the film. Christianity has always been equated to being in mission which was
always rooted in God’s love for humanity and creation. Christians were known to have been
engaged in communicating the word of God to many nations and cultures, thus, it is natural for
Christians to be missionaries. Hence, to be missionary is to be able to not just teach but to
preach Christ to other people through our own words and actions. These things are all directed
to mission being a Christian imperative, which means having a role or responsibility due to its
imperative nature, to be in a Christian mission. In the film, the two priests who are the
protagonists in the story clearly well-played their role as missionaries most especially when they
encountered the Japanese Christians who are in a depleted state who have been driven
underground in order to escape the horrendous slaughter that had already taken 300, 000 lives
of Christians across Japan, and despite being aware of these dangers, they still are wiling to do
their mission, which is to proclaim the gospel in a culture that is strongly opposed to it. Not only
the priests are showed of being in mission but also the Japanese Christians in hiding who were
more than willing to protect the priests who provide them with spiritual guidance, to the extent
that they are willing to give up their lives for their faith.
Being in mission also means being human since it is our nature as Christians to live for
others and the nature of the Christian community as a whole to serve people. Hence,
Christianity is other-directed rather than self-focused. This claim was also portrayed in the film
when the two priests were subjected to a moral dilemma of suffering their own to save others
just like how Father Francisco Garupe drowned next to the other three prisoners when he
attempts to swim offshore trying to save the last prisoner from being drowned. It was also
portrayed when Father Sebastiao Rodrigues committed apostasy involving stepping on the
image of the crucified Christ in order to save the greater amount of people’s lives but still at the
end of the film, it showed that he did not really renounced his faith because in the final scene of
the film where his body was in a large wooden casket, it was shown that in his hand, he was
holding a tiny crucifix which he got when he first arrived at Japan. Hence, it represents his
Christian faith and how deep is his love to Christ even after his act of apostasy in order to save
people.
Indeed, the film portrayed how to be Christian, how to be a missionary. In relation to this,
I have realized that being in mission means being with others as well. I have learned to be more
considerate of other people and to be less self-focused. Basically, I have realized that serving
God is serving others which serves as my mission. Additionally, what I personally learned and
realized after watching the said film was that the love of Christ for us and even his silence is
very powerful and shows that He is with us if we commit to having a close relationship with God
through prayer. Overall, I believe that there is nothing wrong if we choose to be more giving to
other people because at the end of the day, we are all in the process of achieving our goal in life
and that I believe is being in mission, thus also being with others.