If you believe in God, indeed, if you believe anything about the supernatural, consider this dilemma.  You're an adherent, a fervent adherent and advocate for what (and/or who) you believe.  One day, you're asked to renounce your conviction, your faith, to forswear that to which you've dedicated your life and being.  Why?  If you do, you're told, you will halt the torture and execution of many other like adherents.  If you renounce, your captors will set you--and them--free.

     This is the challenge presented in Martin Scorsese's film Silence.  Based on a book of the same name, Silence tells the story of two priests who faced this agonizing choice. Both chose to renounce.  One, however, went to his grave with a crucifix in his hand. This leaves us to wonder:  what did he really believe?
     True belief, it seems, is ultimately a matter of the head and heart.  So does Paul affirm in In the tenth chapter of his letter to the church at Rome.
     But this gets us no closer to understanding the fullness of this dilemma.  All of us who believe, in head and heart, in God and, in this instance, his son Jesus (in whom, steady readers of this blog know, my loyalties center) will, if faced with this choice, need to decide: how much do I really believe what I believe?
     And to this, until the moment arrives, no answer can be given.