The Importance of Silence- Jamie Peters

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       There are so many kinds of silences, if we really think about it. Dead silence, the kind that is foreboding, suspenseful. Beautiful silence, where a sense of peace is about you. All of these kinds of silences combine into that which is the silence of God.
       In a modern Christian's life, it is hard for many people to hear when God is talking because of themselves. Oftentimes, Rodriguez experiences this noise when considering the lives of the Japanese peasants, how lowly and dirty they are. In chapter six of Silence, Rodriguez focuses on the silence around him after a man has died. In his mind, God should have cast down the samurai then and there, or at least not prolong the suffering of the other prisoners held there. Therefore, because of his own ideas of what God should be like and do, he does not hear the still small voice that is calling out to him. The silence of the land around Rodriguez when the old man was executed, in my opinion, was God's way of respecting him, giving off a sense of that restful silence.
       Overall, this book so far has made me stronger in my faith because I realize that even priests (I know he is fictional) sometimes question what God has in store for them; I also know that he will carry me through if I am silent and I listen to his voice.


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Comments

Eliza Colbert said…
I thought the end of chapter 6 was a really powerful moment. Rodrigues was expecting some great change, like when Jesus' died, to go along with martyrdom. But there was nothing. Rodrigues sees his unmet expectations as a sign of God's silence. But just because God does not speak in a way that we expect does not mean he is silent. Like you said, the silence of that moment could have been God's respect. Our challenge is learning to hear God when he speaks in a way we don't expect.
January 20, 2020 at 3:55 PM
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