Thus Have We Made the World

"We must work in the world; the world is thus."

"No, thus have we made the world. Thus have I made it."

Hontar, Cardinal Altamirano, The Mission

In a serious moment of reflection, Cardinal Altamirano in The Mission practically sums up the intense doubt in his soul of whether or not he had made the right decision with the missions. He knew that he had chosen the one that was more pressured, and even, perhaps, the lesser of two evils. But deep down, the Cardinal obviously pondered much on the topic, and the state of his eternal soul. 

I think the last few lines say so much about the take-home message of this movie. It also, however, goes infinitely beyond the scope of any movie. His confession of what the world had become was profound in many ways. While he, personally, was not to blame for all sadness in this world, he is one of the few that seemed to admittedly mourn the manmade status of our political world. 

We face the same challenges today. As political and religious powers continue to clash, the world finds itself still in the never-ending fall toward chaos. In a time where technology, engineering, art, freedom, and media are at an all-time high, global morals seem to be slipping at an all-time high rate. When everyone has a different definition of what is right, right becomes harder to find.

In a letter to Benedict Arnold in 1775, George Washington warned of this very principle:

"While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that 

God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only in this case are they answerable."

Governments in every country of the world would do well to remember this. And to remember the same lesson that Cardinal Altamirano learned after such a difficult decision and lesson learned.