I am not a religious person. Nor am I spiritual. I agree with Marx's assertion that religion is the opium of the masses, and as far as I am concerned, so-called "spirituality" is just religion for lazy people.
So it was with some surprise that, while watching the 1986 film The Mission for the umpteenth time, I suddenly found myself thinking, "this has got to be the most spiritually profound scene in cinematic history."
I am speaking of the scene where Mendoza breaks down and cries. Let me put this in context, in case anyone hasn't seen the film.
Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert DiNero) is a slave-trader who kills his brother in a jealous rage. Afterwards, he is filled with remorse. As a penance, he follows a group of jesuits into the Amazon jungle, dragging an entire suit of armor behind him. He climbs mountains, crosses rivers, scales waterfalls. All the while, the suit of armor remains lashed to his back. Finally, the party encounters indians, the people Mendoza had enslaved for years. But instead of killing Mendoza, the indians cut his burden loose. They slice through the ropes fastening the armor to his body, and heave the whole load into the river. Mendoza breaks down. He begins to cry.
In that moment, Mendoza understood that the killing of one man--his brother--was not his greatest sin. His greatest sin was the killing and enslaving of hundreds of indians. Yet, the indians spared his life. They forgave him. Mendoza realizes he has been given a second chance, that he can change, that he can make amends for his past crimes. In that moment, he is reborn.
The important thing to realize is that Mendoza receives this new understanding as a flash of revelation. Given the kind of man he was, he could never have reasoned his way to this new understanding. That's what makes his experience spiritual. I realize now that if spirituality means anything, it means this: the ability to gain insight by nonrational means.
"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face...And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love."--Corinthians 13: 12-13
