The Mission

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Reflection Essay The Mission

"The Mission" examines the events surrounding the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, when Spain ceded part of South America to Portugal. Two European forces are on hand to win the South American natives over to the ways of the new world. The exploiters want to extract riches and slaves from the New World. The missionaries, on the other hand, want to convert the Indians to Christianity and win over their souls. Mendoza is an exploiter dabbling in the slave trade. After he kills his brother Felipe over a woman, he seeks redemption and calls upon the missionaries to assist him. After repeatedly climbing a cliff with a heavy weight as penance, Mendoza finds redemption and becomes a devout missionary on a settlement run by Gabriel.

The missionaries want to promote a new way of life and spread Christianity to the natives so they can live together in peace with the Spanish and the Portuguese. This concept frightens the royal governors, who are driven by greed, and would rather enslave the natives than encourage peaceful coexistence between the Europeans and the Indians. A bishop from Europe comes to settle the dispute and to view the mission's. He is overwhelmed by what he sees at the mission's of San Miguel and San Carlos. Unfortunately, this was not enough to save the mission at San Carlos and prevent the slaughter of the innocent natives and three Jesuit priests who built the mission.

The bishop was influenced by the fear of the Jesuits turning against the government and continuing to co-exist with the natives. In this case, they would be banished from Portugal, Spain, and eventually all of Europe. The royal governors ordered the mission to be burned to the ground. In the end, the bishop orders the Jesuits to leave the mission and force the natives back into the jungle. This event causes a rift between Gabriel, who wants to pray and pursue peaceful resistance, and Mendoza, who wants to take up arms and fight the Europeans. Tragically, both Mendoza and Gabriel are killed trying to protect the mission.

My analysis of "The Mission" will answer two questions from Avery Dulles Models of the Church. The first question asks if Dulles models were in operation throughout "The Mission". The second question asks what significance the operation of the models had in light of the tragic ending.

The first model that was in operation was the Political Society Model. During the movie, the unquestionable power of the church was explicitly shown. An example of this is when the bishop came to South America in order to settle the land dispute between Portugal and Spain after the Treaty of Madrid had been signed. According to Dulles the " The one true Church is as viable and palpable as the Kingdom of France or the republic of Venice". Dulles states that this model was dominant for far too and it had serious consequences on Church life.

The Political Society Model fostered a hierarchology rather than ecclesiology. With this came a corresponding over-emphasis on authority and a corresponding lack of lay involvement in the life and the mission of the Church. In the movie, the bishop turned a blind eye to what was really going to happen to the Indians at the mission. As a representative of the Pope and the Church, he was more concerned about the politics of the situation, rather than doing what was right by Christ. He was less concerned about the well being of the South American natives and more worried about appeasing the Portuguese government and the slave traders.

Another model that was evident in the movie was the model of the Church as Servant.

This model is dominant in Vatican IIs pastoral constitution on the Church in the Modern World, and all the official social documents that have followed the council have further developed and applied the model. Commencing from an explicit acceptance that the Church must be part of the human community and intimately associated with all that is genuinely human, because that was what Christ became through the Incarnation, the Church sees that it is called to make a positive contribution to all persons whoever they are and whatever their particular needs, after the example of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve. Briefly, as Christ came to serve, the Church must carry on his mission of service to the whole world.

This model makes many demands on the Church institution to become more structured towards the mission of service instead of building up its own house. In mission territories, a greater concentration on ministering to the basic human needs of under-developed nations has been happening. In the movie, the three Jesuit priests helped convert many to Christianity by risking their lives and making many sacrifices by living in the jungle.

This was reminiscent of the services Jesus performed throughout his life. Contrary to the actions Jesus', the bishop was there as a political figure who seemed to lose his way when it came to the mission of the Church. Even Mendoza a murder found redemption through the service of Miguel.

My reaction to the second question of what significance the operation of the models had in light of the tragic ending is that the Political Society Model was the dominant theme of times. The hierarchy of the Church (the bishops and Pope) was more concerned with secular, political society than its true purpose, which is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and serve. Dulles states this conclusion in the following passage

In the period between approximately 1600 and the year 140, Catholic ecclesiology had one dominant model or paradigm for describing and understanding the nature of the Church. That model was the secular political society, the State.

The bishop turned a blind eye to the fate he had condemned the Indians to. He decided to abandon his duty as a successor of the apostles by letting the mission be slaughtered. He could have prevented the bloodshed of the innocent by not giving in to the political pressures from the Portuguese's.

To summarize, the model of the Church as Servant did work and continues to thrive and flourish today. The Jesuits were doing the work of Jesus by spreading the gospel through out the world and baptizing new Christians. They followed this model as servants by eventually sacrificing their lives to protect the native Indians so they would not think God had abandoned them.

Models of the Church, nd Edition, Dublin Gill and MacMillan, 18.

Models of the Church, nd Edition, Dublin Gill and MacMillan, 18.

Models of the Church, nd Edition, Dublin Gill and MacMillan, 18

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