From the day he had been saved, Silas always dedicates his life to God. In everything he does he always prays for God guidance. When he is in a mission of
getting the Holy Grail, he offers his work to God, because he is strongly believes that he is doing the work of God, ”Dear God, I offer up to you this work I do
today.... ” p. 96.
Silas does not care about people judgment toward him. According to him, people can judge him not worthy for God because of his sin, but he believes that it
is “God alone judges the worthy” p. 300. He knows that his service to God requires the sin of murder, but still he has faith that God will forgive him because
he is willing to sacrifice himself to be sinful just to do the work of God. One hour,
he told himself, grateful that the Teacher had given him time to carry out the necessary penance before entering a house of God. I must
purge my soul of todays sins. The sins committed today had been holy in
purpose. Acts of war against the enemies of God had been committed for centuries. Forgiveness was assured. Even so, Silas knew, absolution
required sacrifice p. 14.
As the follower of Opus Dei, it is a must for Silas to practice Corporal Mortification, a kind of Opus Dei ritual which requires its follower to do self-
torture. Silas always puts so much appreciation to this ritual. Moreover it is a pleasure for him to do this ritual, because through this ritual he feels that his faith
in God can grow, “The measure of your faith is the measure of the pain you can endure
” p. 80. Even in his last breath when Silas has already known that what he is doing
is a sin, Silas never lost his faith in God. He asks God to forgive him and to give his mentor second chance to live.
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With every living cell in his broken body, Silas prayed. He prayed for forgiveness. He prayed for mercy. And, above all, he prayed for his
mentor...Bishop Aringarosa...that the Lord would not take him before his time p. 591.
After he prays, He believes that God will forgive him because he has faith that God is merciful, He will always forgive those who admit their sin, “Our Lord is a
good and merciful God” p. 459.
B. Aspects of Religious Fanaticism as Shown by Silas
Through the characteristics of Silas, the writer finds five aspects of religious fanaticism by applying the review on religious fanaticism and the divine
command theory.
1. Total Submission to His Group
A fanatic will leave other aspects of life behind and give his total submission to his group in order to see a religious goal as his only purpose in life
Mirdal, 2002, http:www.psy.ku.dkmirdalterrorisme1.htm. This attitude is depicted clearly through Silas. After meeting Bishop Manuel Aringarosa, Silas
feels that he has been reborn. He considers Opus Dei as a symbol of the beginning of his life.
He pictured a younger Bishop Aringarosa, standing before the small church in Spain... the church that he and Silas had built with their own
hands. The beginning of my life pp. 377-378.
Therefore, he surrenders his life to be used by Opus Dei and took the role of a monk there. His new life is now dedicated to serve the organization in order that
he can fulfill the salvation that he has obtained from Opus Dei. 38
Yet, even as a monk of the Opus Dei, the memories of his past still haunt him from time to time and whenever that happens, Silas always tries to suppress it
by performing corporal mortification. At the moment, though, in his room at the residence hall, it was his fathers
disappointed voice that whispered to him from the past. Tu es un désastre. Un spectre.
you are a disaster. A ghost Kneeling on the wooden floor, Silas prayed for forgiveness. Then,
stripping off his robe, he reached again for the Discipline p. 181.
He feels that the Discipline can erase the violent memories of his past and clean his soul from his past sins, and enable him to rebuild his new life as a part of Opus
Dei. His application of the Discipline is extremely harsh, so much harsher than
what is required of an Opus Dei monk, because he feels that the blood that is resulted by his version of the ritual can free him from his memories of past
violence, cleanse his past sins and enable him to fully became the Silas of Opus Dei.
Five hundred miles away, the albino named Silas stood over a small basin of water and dabbed the blood from his back, watching the patterns of red
spinning in the water. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, he prayed, quoting Psalms. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Silas was feeling
an aroused anticipation that he had not felt since his previous life. It both surprised and electrified him. For the last decade, he had been following The
Way,
cleansing himself of sins... rebuilding his life...erasing the violence in his past p. 34.
Silas is also willing to let go of many of his life aspects, including his sex life. He does really have sexual desires, but he is willing to leave all his
indulgence and choose to live a celibate life in order to follow Opus Dei. For ten years now, Silas had faithfully denied himself all sexual
indulgence, even self-administered. It was The Way. He knew he had sacrificed much to follow Opus Dei, but he had received much more in
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