(Original post can be found here)
Have you ever read a book or seen a film so profound, you knew you could reread or rewatch it endlessly, and never get to the bottom of its infinite mystery?
That’s what reading a Shusaku Endo novel (and watching the Martin Scorsese film inspired by one of them - SILENCE) is like.
A mystery. How catholic! While some faiths try their best to make the word anathema to their adherents, I think it’s timely to remind ourselves that “catholic” means “universal.” It is one of the few faiths that acknowledges our brothers’ and sisters’ journey along many paths to our common Creator.
And Shusaku Endo is precisely that: certainly a Catholic author, but with a unique Japanese stamp. His works are a miraculous mix of beauty and the ugly stain of human sin, philosophy and divine theology merged with tawdry anecdotes. Some of his works are set hundreds of years ago, in a time when to be Catholic/Christian meant certain death on top of inhumane torture. Others are more modern, but still deal with variations on a single theme: how weak men and women seek to take up their crosses in life, out of love for Him who shared all of mankind’s suffering.
Settings vary as well, from samurai Japan to contemporary Tokyo, and even India. A lot of his tales take place in hospitals, where people look eternity in the eye on a daily basis.
Endo’s Christ is one who seeks the most downtrodden. He is one who offers salvation even to the damned hiding in the dark. He draws near not to those who worship in public daily, but to those too ashamed to enter churches.
I’ve made it my life’s mission to track down all of this amazing author’s works translated to English, which will take me many more decades (especially since I usually encounter them in sales bins or preloved bookstores’ pages), but I welcome the challenge! While I do not end up loving every Endo novel I read, I am always left wiser and more grateful.
To be authentically Christian is to be part of a minority, Endo writes. But then again, when one remembers how few friends Christ had, we can rest easy knowing that we are in the best company.
Have you read any of Endo’s works? Which one was your favorite?
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