SynerJack

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When I was 13 my family began doing something together that we would continue the entire time I lived at home. We would watch movies together. I am not talking about your occasional family flick. We began to watch many many movies together. A movie every night, some nights two. These time of excess film viewing usually occurred around thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring, and Summer breaks from school. One of the things my father had the opportunity to do was to show us movies that he thought were meaningful, that conveyed a message that he thought was important. One such movie was The Mission. Most of the movies he selected gained or attention in some fashion or another but not this one. The rest of the family would rather watch, Braveheart, Gone With the Wind, The Dead Poet Society, or anything but The Mission. It got to the point where Dad said, “We aren’t going to watch any more movies until we have watched The Mission.” So we all huddled around the TV to begin our 2 hours of boredom.

The 2 hours of boredom never took. I was sure it would be a boring movie with a deeper message I didn’t understand. I was shocked at an amazing movie, one that ranks in my top ten of all time (the soundtrack is my favorite of all time). The movie follows the path of two men, Father Gabriel and Rodrigo Mendoza, a former slave trader turned priest. The two men work together in the wilderness of South America on a mission to reach the South American natives. When the colony and the mission is in is sold to the Portuguese the mission comes under attack. The two priests are divided in their ideas of what should be done. Father Gabriel is loyal to his beliefs of pacifism, while Father Mendoza organizes and leads a resistance against the invaders. In the end of the movie both priests die firmly loyal to what they believe. One priest goes down praying for, the other fighting for the people they have worked for and love.

If you look at each character they are both fighters in their own way. Gabriel fought a spiritual battle, while Mendoza fought with swords and guns. Either way both men didn’t back down from their beliefs or personal convictions. We live lives of lazy Christianity and when given to choice to fight or not to fight to often we choose not to because we can’t seem to get past our own apathy.  When we do manage to get off of the couch in an attempt to do something we are overly cautious in what and how we do things in order not to offend a minority or, God forbid, a lost person.  We softly attempt to cushion people as to lessen the blow of Hell, when what we need to do fight for them.  Fight on our knees.  Fight in the homes of lost people.  Fight for our faith.

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