31 - Is Kichijiro burning in hell?

Is Kichijiro burning in hell? (or In Praise of a Certain Weakness as Strength)

Full disclosure: The next two posts contain huge spoilers and assume the reader has some basic knowledge of the story of Silence by Shusaku Endo and contain huge spoilers, so if you haven't read it or seen one of the filmed adaptations, do not read this. Instead, go get a copy and spend the afternoon with it (then come back and read this.). 

Silence is all about the hard choices made under extremely traumatic stress. There are many compromises made. The Portuguese priests make them, the Japanese believers make them. Many of these center on the stepping upon the fumi-e, which is a devotional image of Jesus often cast in metal such as bronze. It was a symbolic act of apostasy tantamount to burning incense to Caesar.

Let us look at Kikujiro, a Japanese believer central to the narrative. Kikujiro is described as a very weak man. Yet on the positive he is very loyal and oddly honest. Everytime Kikujiro’s life is threatened by the Japanese authorities seeking Christians, he relents. He crumbles under the pressure, leaving a trail of betrayal in the path behind him. Yet he always comes back. There is something bordering on masochism that continues to bring him back.

Kikujiro has used his weakness as an asset that allows survival and resilience. Remember that there is nothing we can take from God. God is wholly complete, omnipotent and omniscient. Every apostasy only offends God in the way it affects creation. Apostasy affects: the person estranged from God by moving the relationship away from in the wrong orientation away from God. The key question here is: In God’s face is this worse than death? Would God rather someone die than apostasize? 

The martyrs who stood unwavering before persecution are rightly looked toward as exemplars of strength and faith. However what does violent death in the face of persecution accomplish other than the violent birth of exemplars? The questions multiply. Is the strong more important in God’s eyes than the weak? Does God demand death of the weak? Would God rather we live and escape unnecessary violence than stand and die?