"The Mission"

For my Elementary Spanish class, I have had to watch a few movies depicting the culture and history of Spanish-speaking regions of the world.

My first movie that I watched was entitled “The Mission.” It is about the story of the Jesuit missionaries in South America who tried to save the native Guarani Indians and their missions from the Portuguese takeover of previously Spanish territory.

The movie begins with a Jesuit settling a mission named “San Carlos” in a remote part of the South American jungle. He falls in love with the indigenous people and brings Christ to them in action, in education, and in sacrament. After having brought many native Indians to the Church, a cardinal from the Holy See comes to visit South America, to formally “reign in” the Jesuits on the continent so as to “preserve the [Jesuit] order throughout the world” from the political unrest of Europe. This causes the Guarani to try to defend their missions, but in the end, they lose what they had fought to preserve and their lives.

This movie was so moving for me on many levels. The first was how absolutely selfless the Jesuit missionaries were in their care for and love of the Guarani. Sacrificing homeland and worldly things, they sought to bring Christ to the natives by showing His love to them.

What struck me next was the unbelievable and inhumane detachment that the Europeans held for the Guarani, seeing them as either in the way, or as slave labor. This struck me particularly because the Europeans involved were from nominally Catholic countries – Portugal and Spain.

The most moving part of the movie came to me at the end. The last scene portrays the Jesuit priest holding a monstrance being followed in procession by the Guarani as they are being shot at by Portuguese military. The priest is shot and killed, falling to the ground with the Monstrance holding our Lord. Immediately, a Guarani man rushes to the priest and picks up the fallen monstrance, continuing the procession. What faith!