In the movie The Mission, Rodrigo Mendoza is a Spanish slave trader and mercenary in 18th Century Argentina. In a burst of anger, he kills his brother in a lover's triangle. Overcome with remorse and realizing his life's depravity, he seeks redemption with the Jesuit missionaries and goes to confession to Father Gabriel.
Father Gabriel and Mendoza agree on a penance: Mendoza will accompany the brothers to their new mission in a mountain jungle. Mendoza must drag behind him a net containing his armor on the journey, symbolizing the life he seeks to leave behind. It is a long, slow, painful haul.
The other missionaries confront Father Gabriel. They believe that Mendoza has done his penance long enough. Father Gabriel replies, saying, "But he doesn't think so; and until he does, neither do I."
On the last leg of the trip, the Jesuits and Mendoza must scale a dangerous cliff along a waterfall. He struggles to climb the dangerous height with the weight of the armor threatening to pull him into the surging river below. At the top of the falls, the indigenous people recognize Mendoza as a slave trader who oppressed them. Tensions rise — but a man steps forward with a machete and cuts the rope. The net with the heavy armor plunges into the river.
Mendoza breaks into tears. He is welcomed by the indigenous people and embraced by his new brothers. The anger and sin are drained from him, and he begins a new life at the mission.
All of us drag many things that weigh us down on our journey to God. Not only the things themselves but the pursuit of those things distract us from the real joys and meaning of life; things that distort our vision of the world as God created it to be.
Lent (which comes from the old English word for spring) is the season for a "spring cleaning" of our spirits and souls — to drive out of our lives whatever distracts us from the compassion and peace of God and to restore a sense of perspective to realize the joy and hope of God's presence in our lives.+
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