Ray Kreienkamp
6/22/05
Question
Did Fr. Gabriel remain faithful and obedient?
Although Fr. Gabriel does not seem to remain faithful or obedient because of his disobedience towards the commands of the papal representative, I believe he was faithful and obedient to the will of God and to his previous teachings in the course of his actions. Even though he does not follow the orders of the Church, he is a man of faith because of his decision to follow the teachings of God even to the end at the chance of risking excommunication. His dilemma to decide between two things was first realized by Gabriel when he entered the room of the papal representative. On handing the land over to the Portuguese, Fr. Gabriel argued that it was an argument for or against the work of God. The Cardinal, on the one hand, argued that the decision he was to make would be about the existence of the Jesuits. As a result, Gabriel is forced into a dilemma where he has to decide whether he believes in his teachings of love and will defend God's work to the end, or whether he will submit to the Church, who is trying to walk a fine line of acceptance between countries even to the point of risking God's work. Consequently, I believe that Gabriel's decision to defend the natives rather than to submit to the Portuguese and the Vatican is a faithful and obedient decision even though he breaks his vow of obedience. I believe this for a few reasons. First, his decision is in line with his previous teachings, and thus he remains faithful to his words and to his belief of what God would want him to do. Similarly, Gabriel remains faithful and obedient to his teachings and to Christ when he walks toward the line of guns while only holding a monstrance in the midst of vicious battle fire. Instead of picking up his weapon, he follows the teachings of St. Paul and follows the teachings of love. These actions clearly affirm that Gabriel was a very faithful man. As it is stated in the "Characteristics of Biblical Faith", Faith usually involves risk and is not totally intellectual. Also, because his answer to this testing question is not black or white, he must base his answer on Faith. Gabriel clearly makes this decision based on Faith. Although he does not totally understand if this is the right decision and he realizes that he will be susceptible to excommunication if follows through with defending the natives, he stood up for what his Faith told him. He was willing to stand up for what he knew was right rather than submit to a corrupted Church perspective that was willing to give up the Church's real work so that it would still be respected by Spain, Portugal, and Europe. As a result, I believe that Gabriel remains faithful and obedient to his conscience and to his beliefs the whole way through. Even though as a Jesuit he has a vow of obedience to the pope, this great man of faith realizes the greater good and is able to act on it. Consequently, I believe Fr. Gabriel is faithful and obedient.