The Mission

Your Holiness, the little matter

that brought me here is now settled.

The Indians are once more free to be enslaved

by the Spanish and Portuguese settlers.

I don't think that's hitting

the right note. Begin again.

Your Holiness, I write to you

in this year of our Lord 1758...

...from the southern continent of the

Americas, from the town of Asuncin...

...two weeks' march from

the great mission of San Miguel.

These missions have protected the Indians

from the depredations of the settlers...

... and have earned much resentment

because of it.

The noble souls of these Indians

incline towards music.

Indeed, many a violin played

in the academies of Rome...

... have been made

by their nimble and gifted hands.

It was from these missions the Jesuit

fathers carried the word of God...

... to those Indians still

existing in their natural state...

... and received in return, martyrdom.

The death of this priest

was to form the first link...

... in the chain of which

I now find myself a part.

Continue.

As Your Holiness undoubtedly knows...

...little in this world

unfolds as we predict.

How could the Indians have supposed

that the death of that unsung priest...

... would bring among them a man whose life

was to become intertwined with their own?

Thank you, Father.

It was our territory.

Julien's and mine.

I sent him, Father.

I have to go up there myself.

Can you see him?

No.

With an orchestra, the Jesuits could

have subdued the whole continent.

So it was that the Guarani

were brought finally to account...

... to the everlasting mercy of God...

... and to the short-lived

mercy of man.

Who are you?

So you're hunting above the falls now,

Captain Mendoza?

We're building a mission here.

- We'll make Christians of these people.

- Lf you have the time.

It's your brother.

- Alonzo, are they healthy?

- Excellent.

Good.

- Are there many above the falls?

- Yes.

- Dangerous?

- Yes.

- Not against powder and shot.

- No.

I've seen Jesuits there.

- Above the falls?

- Yes.

Damn them.

The mission is

to be called San Carlos.

- Don Cabeza.

- Mendoza.

Take them away.

Quickly. Quickly now.

- You should find yourself a good woman.

- I have.

If you had,

you wouldn't look so gloomy.

- Maybe you're right.

- About women, I'm always right.

- How could I forget?

- You forget everything.

- I do, do I?

- You do.

Good.

Hello.

- Good. Now take them off.

- Excellent.

You distract too easily.

On the day the seorita

can't distract my attention...

...I'll become a monk.

- On that day, Felipe...

...half the ladies in this town

will become nuns.

Pure gossip.

Rodrigo is the lady's man.

Rodrigo here is this lady's man.

Felipe?

I love him, Rodrigo.

Since when have you loved Felipe?

Six months.

- Six...?

- I've been trying to tell you.

I have.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

You have been trying to tell me.

So me you do not love?

Not as I love Felipe.

- Rodrigo, that's the love that I need.

- I see.

And so I have no need?

You need so much.

You deserve so much.

Rodrigo, you won't hurt him, will you?

No, I won't hurt him.

Rodrigo, please.

- You laughed.

- I did not laugh.

Most certainly you laughed.

- At whom are you laughing?

- Don't do this.

Quarrel with me!

Oh, no!

So how goes it at your mission

above the falls?

- Insects and twigs, Father.

- No converts?

A few.

- And many near to it, thank the Lord.

- Thank the Lord, indeed.

- Do you know Rodrigo Mendoza?

- Yes, I know him.

Come with me.

I have a task, and you are

the only one who can do it.

He's been here for six months,

but he won't see anybody.

I think he wants to die.

So...

...you killed your brother.

And it was a duel.

And the law can't touch you.

Is this remorse?

Leave...

...priest.

Maybe you wish I was your executioner.

Perhaps that would be easier.

Leave me alone.

- You know what I am.

- Yes.

You're a mercenary,

you're a slave trader...

...and you killed your brother.

I know.

And you loved him.

Although you chose

a strange way to show it.

Are you laughing at me?

Are you laughing at me?

I'm laughing at you...

...because all I see is laughable.

I see a man running away, a man

hiding from the world. I see a coward.

Go on.

Go on.

So is that it?

Is this how you mean to go on?

- There is nothing else.

- There is life.

- There is no life.

- There is a way out, Mendoza.

For me, there is no redemption.

God gave us the burden of freedom.

You chose your crime.

Do you have the courage to choose

your penance? Do you dare do that?

There is no penance

hard enough for me.

- But do you dare try it?

- Do I dare?

Do you dare to see it fail?

- Father?

- Aye?

How long must he carry

that stupid thing?

God knows, Father John.

- Ralph, here.

- Thank you.

Father?

He's done this penance long enough, and,

well, the other brothers think the same.

But he doesn't think so, John.

Until he does, neither do I.

We're not the members of a democracy,

Father. We're members of an order.

No.

No.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lord, for our food

and all your other blessings. Amen.

Oh, good Lord.

- Did you cook this?

- Yes.

Did you put in all the chilies?

Lm afraid I did.

Lm sorry. I was trained

as a mercenary, not as a cook.

- This is true.

- Its dreadful.

- But the bread is good.

- Its not bad.

Father, I want to thank you

for having me here.

You should thank the Guarani.

How?

Read this.

"Though I have all faith

so that I could remove mountains...

... and have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods

to feed the poor...

... and though I give my body

to be burned...

... and have not love,

it profiteth me nothing.

Love suffereth long and is kind.

Love envieth not.

Love vaunteth not itself,

is not puffed up.

When I was a child,

I spake as a child...

... I understood as a child,

I thought as a child.

But when I became a man,

I put away childish things.

But now abideth faith, hope, love...

These three.

But the greatest of these is love. "

They've agreed.

If you're going to become a Jesuit,

you must accept my orders...

...as if they were the orders

of a commander. Can you do that?

Yes, Father.

Let us pray for our brother Rodrigo.

Christ, you led Father Ignatius to

renounce the snares of this world...

...and to put on the livery

of labor and humiliation.

Now we ask your blessing on Rodrigo

as we welcome him into our community.

Teach him to be generous,

to labor and not to count the cost...

...to serve with no reward,

save the doing of your will.

Amen.

Welcome home, brother.

This seeking to create

a paradise on earth...

... how easily it offends.

Your Holiness is offended...

... because it may distract from

that paradise which comes hereafter.

The Spanish and Portuguese kings

are offended...

... because a paradise of the poor

is seldom pleasing to those who rule.

And the settlers here are offended

for the same reason.

So it was this burden I carried

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