Rodrigo has lived as a soldier and a slave trader in Spain and he has lived this way for many years. He encounters a problem when his girlfriend falls in love with his brother Felipe. This completely devastates him and when he catches the two of them in bed with each other he is so furious that he leaves the house. In an attempt to calm Rodrigo down, Felipe angered him even more and started a swordfight that inevitably resulted in Felipe�s death. After accidentally killing Felipe, Rodrigo can barely stand to live. This is the first key moment that begins Rodrigo�s conversion. Previously, Rodrigo was a soldier who thought nothing of taking lives, but after taking the life of someone so important to him, he realizes that he has caused this kind of pain to many people in the past without even caring. He tells Father Gabriel that �there is no life, no redemption, no penance for [him]� because he thinks that his past sins are unforgivable, even by God. Father Gabriel tells Rodrigo that God will forgive all sins and to help him, he brings Rodrigo to the mission that he had begun at the top of a waterfall in the jungle.
During the long hike to the mission, Rodrigo carries a ton of heavy armor and weapons all the way there. This armor is like a part of Rodrigo�s soul because not only does it represent his many past sins, but also his old life and habits of being a soldier and slave trader. While Rodrigo was struggling to get up the cliff, one of the Jesuit priests cut loose the armor in order to help him, but Rodrigo went back to pick it up because he refused to abandon his old ways. When the group finally reached the mission and Rodrigo met the natives for the first time they came to him and forcibly cut off his armor and threw it into the river. This was the second major moment in his conversion because the natives, acting as God manifested, freed Rodrigo of his sins and released him from the problems in his past. After this happened, Rodrigo broke down in tears of joy because such a huge burden had been lifted from him and he finally opened up to everyone because there was no more armor to shield him from the world.
After being freed of his burden, a metanoia occurs in Rodrigo. When the natives hunt down a pig and ask Rodrigo to slaughter it, he refuses�a radically different response than a soldier. Also, when at the Papal Delegate�s meeting, Rodrigo stands up for the natives and argues against their enslavement because he is beginning to think of the needs of others. The biggest change that Rodrigo made was joining the Jesuit order. He changes from being a soldier and dealing in immoral acts such as slave trading to becoming God�s messenger�a change very similar to that of St. Ignatius and St. Paul.
The third and final step in Rodrigo�s conversion occurs when he has to make two major decisions. The Papal Delegate tells the Jesuits that if they resist the Portuguese takeover of the mission, they would be excommunicated. Rodrigo along with all the other Jesuits decide to stay with the mission. This shows that Rodrigo cares more about the natives than himself, but this is more plainly shown in his second decision. When the Portuguese army is on its way to the mission, Rodrigo decides to take back his sword to fight for the natives. Although this means that he is once again becoming a soldier, it is different this time because now Rodrigo is willing to give up his life for the natives, so he has chosen the right path and not reverted to his old ways.
In the end, the biggest factor in Rodrigo�s conversion was the forgiveness of God manifested through others, namely the natives and the Jesuits. The natives showed him the innocence and purity that human life can have and the Jesuits taught him what God really wanted for him. Although Rodrigo dies in the end, he did not die in vain because he reformed himself and became a person who was truly selfless that helped others until the moment of his death. Rodrigo�s message will live on because, as the Papal Delegate put it, �it is [he] who is dead and [the Jesuit priests] who live because the spirit of the dead will survive in the memory of the living.�
