Windmills

A priest publicly renounces his faith to save the lives of his flock and lives out the rest of his days as a religious censor. An ordinary farmer refuses to swear fealty to his authoritarian government because of his faith and is executed, leaving his family fatherless. Here lies the contrast of Silence (2016) and A Hidden Life (2019).

The protagonist of Silence, a Catholic priest, is enamored with his opportunity to enter a hostile culture and shepherd the hidden faithful, evangelize in secret, and possibly die for his God. Imagine the nobility of such a death. In fact, his traveling companion receives this honor, ordered drowned by the local government. His adversary does not want him killed, though. He wants the priest to renounce his faith in front of those he leads. The adversary gives him a choice: your faith or the lives of your flock. His glorious martyrdom is snatched away. Instead, the only recourse the priest has to save his disciples is to take on the shame of a renounced faith. This is not the example lived by the saints. This is damnation, is it not? How could God keep such a failure?

The protagonist of A Hidden Life is a farmer, father, and husband. He loves his home, his family, and God. He has no grand aspirations. When his government goes to war, he refuses to fight or swear fealty to a regime he believes is immoral. He and his family are ostracized from their small agrarian community. But he remains steadfast. He is arrested and his wife is left alone to care for their land and children. Though it pains him, he is resolute. The farmer is asked what he is trying to accomplish. “Your protest will not be heard. No one knows of your plight. The country does not care.” The farmer tells these voices he is no martyr. Only that it does not sit well with his soul. They execute him in private. His story never told. This is the example lived by the saints. This is salvation, is it not? Is this what God truly wants, a fatherless family?

Terrence Malick, director of A Hidden Life, wrote a letter to Martin Scorsese after he saw the director’s film, Silence. He asked simply, “What does Christ want from us?”