The Mission was produced by Goldcrest Films and released in 1986 starring Jeremy Irons (Father Gabriel) and Robert De Niro (Rodrigo Mendoza). It was written by Robert Bolt who also wrote A Man for All Seasons about the life of St. Thomas More. The cinematography is stunning, and it has a hauntingly beautiful score by Ennio Morricone. This is not a movie for children as it includes disturbing scenes of war-style violence and graphic scenes of martyrdom.
The film is set in the 18th century and takes place in South America where the Jesuits were creating Catholic missions for the musically and spiritually inclined Guarani natives. Under the leadership of Father Gabriel, the mission of San Miguel (and later, above the falls, San Carlos) becomes a kind of paradise on earth. They create stunning churches, beautiful musical instruments, and a prosperous self-owned plantation. The background politics threatening the Mission include the slave trade, territorial disputes between the Spanish and the Portuguese governments, and the Church’s role in deciding not to protect the Mission in an effort to guard Church interests in Europe.
I will confess, this is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love period pieces especially when they explore difficult political, religious, historical, philosophical, and ethical topics. This film has many layers and there are no easy answers. I first saw this movie when I was in high school, and I was instantly attracted to the Jesuit idealism. I wanted to be Father Gabriel, a brave, kind, idealistic, and faithful priest who lived and died by his convictions. Father Gabriel’s clarity and holiness, however, contrasts with the Cardinal who is sent to South America to decide the fate of the Mission. The film is framed around a letter that this Cardinal is writing to the Pope about his experience and about how he is making a political decision that will forever haunt his conscience. Father Gabriel’s focus is on the work of God in the Mission. The Cardinal is dreadfully self-aware that his focus on protecting the Church’s political interests and the survival of the Jesuit order in Europe will mean the abandonment of the Mission and the Guarani people to those who will ultimately kill or enslave them.
But I was also drawn to the character of Rodrigo Mendoza, a mercenary and slave trader who undergoes a powerful conversion experience. He is a man of passion who must confront his own ego and discover what it means to belong to a community and to truly love. Yes, this is a film about redemption, but it is ultimately a film about conscience. Both Father Gabriel and Rodrigo are faced with an impossible crisis which challenges their convictions and forces them to choose how they will respond to almost certain death.
If you haven’t seen this film, I hope you are intrigued. But why is this movie a good one to discuss in relation to parts work?
It has (in my opinion) the most powerful and moving unburdening scene in cinematic history.
SPOILER ALERT!
When we first meet Rodrigo, he is poaching Guarani natives above the falls (on a difficult to reach plateau), and selling them as slaves. He casually kills these natives as he pleases, and he treats them like animals. In a rather startling contrast, we see him act with love and affection to his brother and his girlfriend. We know this man is capable of reason and deep feeling. When he finds out his girlfriend is in love with his brother, he is upset but he initially handles it with restraint. His resentment starts to grow and when he finds them in bed together, he ends up in a duel and takes his brother’s life. This is so overwhelming for him that he sinks into a depression and spends six months in a self-imposed exile.
Father Gabriel is brought in to work with him and challenges him to choose his penance. Rodrigo then carries a large, netted bag filled with swords, armor, shields, all the symbols of his past life as a mercenary and slave trader, and hauls it up the steep incline as they journey to the plateau and the San Carlos mission. The other Jesuit priests believe the penance is too harsh and want to relieve him of this terrible burden, but Father Gabriel assures them that until he is ready, they must let him continue the climb.
Finally, Rodrigo and the Jesuits make it to the top of the plateau and encounter the Guarani natives, the same ones that Rodrigo had been enslaving. Rodrigo, having spent days climbing up the cliff-side and tied to his burden of weapons and armor, is truly wretched looking. One of the natives takes a knife to Rodrigo’s neck and yells at him. But then in an act of powerful forgiveness, the leader shouts a command, and the native, instead of slitting his throat, cuts the cord to the burden and pushes it off the cliff into the water. Rodrigo starts to cry. Father Gabriel holds him. The natives forgive him, and there’s laughter. Rodrigo cries and laughs, his terrible burden is now gone. I dare you to watch this scene and not be moved to tears. Rodrigo is accepted by the community that he once persecuted. He then helps them build the mission and becomes a Jesuit himself.
Later, because of complex European political pressures, the Cardinal decides that the Mission (both San Miguel and San Carlos) must be abolished, and the territories given to the Portuguese who will capture and enslave the Guarani. He orders all the Jesuit priests to leave, and he orders all the Guarani to return to the jungle. The Guarani want to stay and protect the Mission because it is now their home. Father Gabriel chooses to stay with the Guarani and peacefully face certain martyrdom. Rodrigo chooses to fight with the Guarani against the Portuguese.
The choice to fight or not is the central inner conflict, or polarization, in the film. Father Gabriel, the consummate priest, represents the body of Christ, perhaps even the inmost self. He opposes violence and challenges Rodrigo, “You promised your life to God, and God is love!” Gabriel, like the inmost self, operates from a place of love and compassion. And yet, there is a moment when Rodrigo, having taken up arms, asks for a blessing, Gabriel reveals his own struggle and says, “If might is right, then love has no place in the world, and I don’t have the strength to live in a world like that.” Father Gabriel can no longer “protect” the whole system. Even the Church, and particularly the Cardinal, has manipulated and abandoned him. Meanwhile, Rodrigo, the ultimate protector, is determined to defend his new people, the Guarani. Rodrigo, for his part, is no longer the reactive and ego-driven firefighter who ruthlessly enslaved people and impulsively killed his brother. He picks up arms to defend his people. Unfortunately, in making that choice, he (and the priest played by Liam Neeson) must return to a life of violence and take the lives of the Portuguese attackers.
The theme of dehumanization is prominent throughout the film. When we first meet Rodrigo, he treats the Guarani as animals but he discovers their humanity in his conversion. There is a hearing with the Cardinal and the local authorities where Father Gabriel defends the Guarani saying, “they are not naturally animal, they are naturally spiritual.” The Guarani are often unashamedly naked or nearly naked – there is an Eden-like innocence about them. They are naturally playful, spiritual, and musical. They adopt Christian spirituality with ease. When the Europeans enslave them, they treat them as objects, even using their bodies as weapons. The contrast is startling and disturbing. The war, which is motivated by greed and political power, highlights the dehumanization of all involved. The film often flashes to the innocent eyes of children taking in the cruelty of men. The Christian message, so beautifully delivered by the Jesuits and so sincerely received by the Guarani, is utterly undermined and ultimately destroyed by the political players. And the Church leadership, represented by the Cardinal, is portrayed as complicit in this betrayal.
When I first saw this movie, I saw Rodrigo, at the end of the film as picking up his old burden and returning to his old life, only now in defense of the Guarani. Upon further reflection I have a more nuanced view. It is the Guarani who throw his burden into the water. But he doesn’t actually go pick his burden up again. A Guarani child finds his sword, cleans it and hands it to him, essentially appealing to him to take it again. Rodrigo doesn’t take up his whole burden, but he does receive a part of it, the sword. He doesn’t take the sword reactively but hesitantly. He doesn’t want to return to his old life. But he is called by the Guarani to help them defend themselves. It is a painful thing for him to have to kill again, even if it is to defend his new people. I no longer see Rodrigo as a firefighter, turned healthy protector, who then becomes a firefighter again. When he picks up the sword again, it is with purpose to defend not for profit or out of careless cruelty.
Nevertheless, Father Gabriel cannot bless him in his choice to pick up the sword. Father Gabriel implores Rodrigo to serve the people as a priest, not as a fighter. Gabriel chooses to die saying Mass, holding the Blessed Sacrament, the Body of Christ in the monstrance, even as the Portuguese are shooting at him and the women and children with him.
But although Father Gabriel does not bless him, he does give Rodrigo the cross worn by the martyred priest whom we saw die at the beginning of the film. There is a sense that both men respect each other even though they take different paths. I was suddenly struck by the idea that there is integration here, rather than the opposite. When Rodrigo dies, after helping a child, he dies by the sword. But he sees Gabriel, holding the Blessed Sacrament and being struck down as well. Both parts, the spiritual self of Father Gabriel, and the protector part of Rodrigo, die because the self-system is being overwhelmed in a grave way. But there is a spiritual connection between them in this moment, so far from a dichotomy, I was struck by the harmony. My teenage self watching the movie didn’t see it this way, but perhaps my older wiser less rigid self now sees the nuance. When and how do we actively fight for what we believe in? When do we detach and focus on prayer?
We live in difficult times. Like Father Gabriel and Rodrigo, we face external threats in secular society, but we also face internal church divisions. Do we focus on the path of personal holiness like Father Gabriel even when it leads to martyrdom? Or do we take up arms like Rodrigo and fight against internal and external threats? What does our conscience tell us to do? How well formed is our conscience? How do we manage our competing parts demanding we act in this or that way, perhaps reactively, perhaps righteously?
The powerful imagery of this movie which includes a waterfall and native people living high above on a plateau, reminds of the spiritual mission that God has given us and the perils of doing it poorly. The missions of San Miguel and San Carlos in this film show us the beauty of that blessed project. The program of evil, however, seeks to disfigure man’s natural goodness and enslave our hearts. We are called to bring about the kingdom of God, or as I often say, the kingdom of love. It is our role that through Christ we transfigure the world.
Christ is among us!
Dr. Gerry
Dr. Gerry Crete is the author of Litanies of the Heart: Relieving Post-traumatic Stress and Calming Anxiety Through Healing Our Parts which is published by Sophia Institute Press. He is the founder of Transfiguration Counseling and Coaching, Transfiguration Life, and co-founder of Souls and Hearts.
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Talking with Fr. Mike Schmitz and Sr. Josephine Garrett on the IIC podcast
And now, [drum roll, please] we are sharing the first of our adventures at the National Eucharistic Congress, a montage of press conference and homily clips. Join Dr. Peter as he connects with Catholic thought leaders about the integration of personal formation and the Eucharist in this 33-minute episode titled Fr. Mike Schmitz, Sr. Josephine Garrett, and Archbishop Cordileone on Personal Formation (video and audio)
Fr. Mike Schmitz, Sr. Josephine Garret, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone engage us in discussing integrated personal formation. Fr. Mike highlights the importance of silence, which is “the great magnifier” that allows us to know ourselves and draw closer to God. In a homily, Archbishop Cordelione exhorts us to rediscover the silence that “sensitizes us to the sacred.” Finally, Sr. Josephine links human formation to pastoral formation and discusses how we, as Catholics, we should take what the secular sciences have to offer and claim it for our own. Sr. Josephine also defines proper integration as allowing God to work through all the places of our life. Join in to learn what these modern Catholic thought leaders share with us about human formation, along with some thoughts from Blaise Pascal and St. Augustine.
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Your vision, mission, and values
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