"So, your Holiness, now your priests are dead, and I am left alive. But in truth it is I who am dead, and they who live. For as always, your Holiness, the spirit of the dead will survive in the memory of the living. " -Altamirano
(Roland Joffé (director), The Mission)
Having served a mission in Paraguay, I don't know why it took me such a long time before watching The Mission. I finally got around to it when Dr. Mack assigned us to watch the movie - I'm so grateful that he did. Warning - because this topic hits close to home for me, I'm definitely going to go over the suggested 250-300 words.
(I took all of the pictures in this blog post while on my mission in Paraguay. One p-day, I was lucky enough to visit the ruins at the Misión Jesuítica de la Santísima Trinidad - the pictures of the ruins were taken there. Unlike the Aztecs and Incans, the Guaraní didn't build with stone - the only ancient ruins in Paraguay are what's left of the Jesuit missions.)
Where to start? I've been thinking about this movie constantly since I watched it 2 days ago. Even considered apart from my bias towards Paraguay, the film commands awe: great acting, beautiful cinematography, inspiring film score. But my experiences in Paraguay were what made it meaningful.
The plot centers on Jesuit missionaries who preached the Gospel to the native Guaraní (the people) in Paraguay. I spent two years preaching the Gospel to their descendants in the same place speaking the same languages. (The actors portraying the Indians weren't Guaraní, nor did they speak Guaraní (the language) in the movie, and not all of the film was shot in Paraguay. I surprised myself at how okay I was with that - usually I'm big on authenticity.)
Watching the film was a very nostalgic experience. All sorts of memories resurfaced in my brain during the movie. Not specific memories, but more like emotional memories of what I feel for the people and the land. Only those who have served a mission for the Church will know exactly what I'm talking about - I think it's impossible to describe those feelings with words. Of course the Portuguese empire wasn't trying to enslave the people I taught, but I think that today's missionaries experience many of the same emotions that the Jesuits dealt with in the movie.
My favorite scene was the atonement of Rodrigo Mendoza as he arrives at the Guaraní mission above the falls. Through tears and laughter, he comes to understand the grace and forgiveness of God. He suffers trials and penance as he comes to understand the people he's serving. I think most missionaries have similar experiences.
Last summer I finished a book by John Gimlette called At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels through Paraugay. In it, he talks about the rise of the powerful Jesuit missionaries and how the Spanish and Portuguese eventually took them out. Here are some quotes and some of my commentary:
Gimlette describes how though they were peaceful communities, disobedience was still punished with lashings: "There was no death penalty, and after every flogging, the accused kissed the sleeve of his scourge, the priest. Here, perhaps, was the most telling feature of all: in each of the reductions there were seldom more than two Europeans. Whips or not, the Jesuit Arcadia was a community by consent" (286).
"[The Guaraní] could reproduce almost anything: violins, harpsichords, clocks, statues, Dürer, Bosch or Callot. Their choirs could mimic any that the holy fathers had left behind... They built themselves a printing press a century before Buenos Aires. At San Cosme, they constructed an astronomical observatory and brought the world important news from Saturn. These were some of the most literate communities in the world and in a state of unceasing adoration. Life, as one wag put it, was a perpetual Sunday" (286).
"Even Voltaire, who was never comfortable in the praise of religious orders, conceded that the Paraguayan example was 'unique upon the Earth' and a replica of the 'ancient government of Sparta'... It would even be suggested that the republic was modelled on Thomas More's Utopia and Campanella's The City of the Sun" (287).
Regarding the Portuguese invasion: "The Jesuits played their part in the ensuing slaughter. Intellectually, they argued that kings had no business subverting the natural rights of Indians. Disobedience was morally imperative. In the field, the holy fathers exhorted the Indians to resistance. Chief among them was an Irishman of uncertain temper and excruciating Latin: Thadeus Ennis. After four years of stalemate, he urged his Guaraní to battle" (288).
Regarding the confusion of the Guaraní that still may exist today: "Sixty thousand Guaranís were enslaved. To the slavers, their harvesting was child's play. No longer did they have to pursue the fleet savages through the forest. The Jesuits had gathered them into human dovecotes. 'Of gravest concern,' wrote one priest, ' is that the Indians imagine that we gathered them in, not to teach them the law of God but to deliver them to the Portuguese'" (282).
Regarding the movie: "The Mission emerged in the last decade of the Stronato. Thadeus Ennis is just recognisable (sic) in the swagering of Robert De Niro. At the time the film was set, Paraguay's government was considered the most virtuous in the world. By the time the film was launched, it was the most diabolical. Naturally, General Stroessner had the picture banned" (289). The "Stronato" refers to the 35 year long reign of Paraguay's most recent notorious dictator, General Alfredo Stroessner.
(Roland Joffé (director), The Mission)
Having served a mission in Paraguay, I don't know why it took me such a long time before watching The Mission. I finally got around to it when Dr. Mack assigned us to watch the movie - I'm so grateful that he did. Warning - because this topic hits close to home for me, I'm definitely going to go over the suggested 250-300 words.
(I took all of the pictures in this blog post while on my mission in Paraguay. One p-day, I was lucky enough to visit the ruins at the Misión Jesuítica de la Santísima Trinidad - the pictures of the ruins were taken there. Unlike the Aztecs and Incans, the Guaraní didn't build with stone - the only ancient ruins in Paraguay are what's left of the Jesuit missions.)
Where to start? I've been thinking about this movie constantly since I watched it 2 days ago. Even considered apart from my bias towards Paraguay, the film commands awe: great acting, beautiful cinematography, inspiring film score. But my experiences in Paraguay were what made it meaningful.
The plot centers on Jesuit missionaries who preached the Gospel to the native Guaraní (the people) in Paraguay. I spent two years preaching the Gospel to their descendants in the same place speaking the same languages. (The actors portraying the Indians weren't Guaraní, nor did they speak Guaraní (the language) in the movie, and not all of the film was shot in Paraguay. I surprised myself at how okay I was with that - usually I'm big on authenticity.)
Watching the film was a very nostalgic experience. All sorts of memories resurfaced in my brain during the movie. Not specific memories, but more like emotional memories of what I feel for the people and the land. Only those who have served a mission for the Church will know exactly what I'm talking about - I think it's impossible to describe those feelings with words. Of course the Portuguese empire wasn't trying to enslave the people I taught, but I think that today's missionaries experience many of the same emotions that the Jesuits dealt with in the movie.
My favorite scene was the atonement of Rodrigo Mendoza as he arrives at the Guaraní mission above the falls. Through tears and laughter, he comes to understand the grace and forgiveness of God. He suffers trials and penance as he comes to understand the people he's serving. I think most missionaries have similar experiences.
Ha pe tesapehára
omimbi pe pytûnguype ha pe pytû ndikatúi ombogue pe tesape. Juan 1:5
Last summer I finished a book by John Gimlette called At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels through Paraugay. In it, he talks about the rise of the powerful Jesuit missionaries and how the Spanish and Portuguese eventually took them out. Here are some quotes and some of my commentary:
Gimlette describes how though they were peaceful communities, disobedience was still punished with lashings: "There was no death penalty, and after every flogging, the accused kissed the sleeve of his scourge, the priest. Here, perhaps, was the most telling feature of all: in each of the reductions there were seldom more than two Europeans. Whips or not, the Jesuit Arcadia was a community by consent" (286).
"[The Guaraní] could reproduce almost anything: violins, harpsichords, clocks, statues, Dürer, Bosch or Callot. Their choirs could mimic any that the holy fathers had left behind... They built themselves a printing press a century before Buenos Aires. At San Cosme, they constructed an astronomical observatory and brought the world important news from Saturn. These were some of the most literate communities in the world and in a state of unceasing adoration. Life, as one wag put it, was a perpetual Sunday" (286).
"Even Voltaire, who was never comfortable in the praise of religious orders, conceded that the Paraguayan example was 'unique upon the Earth' and a replica of the 'ancient government of Sparta'... It would even be suggested that the republic was modelled on Thomas More's Utopia and Campanella's The City of the Sun" (287).
Regarding the Portuguese invasion: "The Jesuits played their part in the ensuing slaughter. Intellectually, they argued that kings had no business subverting the natural rights of Indians. Disobedience was morally imperative. In the field, the holy fathers exhorted the Indians to resistance. Chief among them was an Irishman of uncertain temper and excruciating Latin: Thadeus Ennis. After four years of stalemate, he urged his Guaraní to battle" (288).
Regarding the confusion of the Guaraní that still may exist today: "Sixty thousand Guaranís were enslaved. To the slavers, their harvesting was child's play. No longer did they have to pursue the fleet savages through the forest. The Jesuits had gathered them into human dovecotes. 'Of gravest concern,' wrote one priest, ' is that the Indians imagine that we gathered them in, not to teach them the law of God but to deliver them to the Portuguese'" (282).
(This river connects to the one from the movie The Mission.)
Regarding the movie: "The Mission emerged in the last decade of the Stronato. Thadeus Ennis is just recognisable (sic) in the swagering of Robert De Niro. At the time the film was set, Paraguay's government was considered the most virtuous in the world. By the time the film was launched, it was the most diabolical. Naturally, General Stroessner had the picture banned" (289). The "Stronato" refers to the 35 year long reign of Paraguay's most recent notorious dictator, General Alfredo Stroessner.
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