In anticipation of our trip to Brazil, Becky and I recently (re)watched “The Mission,” one of our favorite movies and filmed where we will be for the first half of our journey. We are staying at Iguaçu Falls as depicted in the movie poster and will travel into Argentina to visit the ruins of one of the Jesuit missions that are important in the story “The Mission” tells.
In the film Robert De Niro plays Rodrigo Mendoza, a slave trader and murderer whose penance for one of his many crimes is to join Brother Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) in the work of the mission being built in the jungle above the falls. While not a “Christian” movie, the story told is the story of Mendoza’s slow conversion to Christian faith. Mendoza studies Scripture – we hear him citing 1 Corinthians 13 on more than one occasion. The former slave trader comes to understand the power of faith, hope, and love through the community at the mission – the Jesuits and, especially, the Guarani people who have found shelter and meaning at the mission. Continue reading




