Theology Essay

Father Gabriel and Rodrigo are both men of extreme faith, and show their faith throughout the movie. Both of these men face difficult decisions at the end of the movie, and they both chose to illustrate their faith in their own way. Father Gabriel stays with the Indians and prays with them while they wait for the Portuguese to come and kill them. Rodrigo has a different approach to the approaching Portuguese. Rodrigo intends to stand and fight them. Both men here are showing their faith, and although their methods are totally opposite, both are equally men of faith.

Fr. Gabriel and Rodrigo are told to leave the mission so the Portuguese can take all the Indians captive as slaves, but neither of them listens. They both know what will happen to the Indians when the Portuguese come, and so neither of them leaves the mission. They disobey a direct order and are therefore both risking excommunication from the church which is the only reason they began the mission in the first place. These two men risk their jobs and even their lives for the Indians. They take these risks because they have enough faith in what they are doing to risk every thing for what they believe in.

It is true that the risks that these two men of faith take do in fact make them men of faith, but aside from that they are still men of faith. Even if their lives were not at stake they would still be considered men of faith, because they trust that what they are doing so much that they are sure they are right. Rodrigo asks for Fr. Gabriel’s blessing, but Gabriel does not give it to him. Father Gabriel tells Rodrigo that he can not give him his blessing, but God will bless him if he is doing the right thing. Rodrigo knows in his heart that he is doing the right thing in fighting the Indians because he knows what it is like to place his faith in the wrong thing. For his entire life Rodrigo was a slave trader who killed and enslaved the same people that he is now giving his life to protect. Rodrigo was forgiven by the people who he thought would never forgive him, and now he knows that it is the right thing to help them. Rodrigo and Father Gabriel are great examples of men of faith, because they stick up for what they believe in even when they don’t have to, and even when it may mean putting their own lives on the line just to help others.

In my own life there are few examples of when I have been given the option of resorting to violence to stick up for what I believe in. One great example is when I was in grade school and a group of boys in my grade were being mean to a person much younger then them. There were many things I could have done in this situation. I could have paid no attention to the entire incident, or even join in on picking on the smaller boy, but I chose to stand up for the little boy. There will still choices after I decided that I would stand up for the boy. I could use violence and stand up for the littler boy physically, or I could have told on them, or I could have simply talked to the other boys. It was hard to go against what the easy thing to do was, but in the end I chose to talk to the other boys, who eventually left the small boy alone. This is a small thing to do in comparison to Rodrigo and Father Gabriel, but it is in essence the same type of choice that they had to make. I had to first choose whether or not to do anything, and then I had to choose in what way I would do it. I even had risks, even though they were nowhere near as severe as death, such as being un cool for standing up to people the same age or being a tattletale, or even getting bullied myself. The only thing I knew at the time was that standing up for the boy was the right thing to day, and I know that I put my faith in the right place in that instance.