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Our students and staff had been studying forgiveness all week as part of our Encountering God track at chapter camp in Michigan. But knowing something in your head and experiencing it in your heart are two different matters. On this particular morning, we had split up to write on note cards an area of our lives that we knew was in need of forgiveness.

Students filed back into our meeting room, pinning their folded cards on a wooden cross that was hanging in the front of the room. Then they knelt down to wait until they sensed that they were fully forgiven. More and more students came in, pinned up their cards and knelt, until the room began to fill. The hush over the ever-widening circle was beautiful, as students received the ministry of the Holy Spirit speaking forgiveness into their hearts. But God wasn't finished.

We sang a song to close that time and then watched a video clip from The Mission, set in South America. Robert De Niro is a slave trader, and Jeremy Irons is a Jesuit priest. We showed a ten-minute segment from the early part of the movie. Irons, the priest, has gained love and acceptance with a tribe of Indians because he has brought them the message of Jesus. De Niro has been capturing and selling Indians from the same tribe. De Niro, in a fight over a woman, has killed his own brother and is nearly insane because of his guilt. Irons challenges him not to be a coward and to choose his penance (a Catholic teaching at the time) to get rid of his guilt.

The next scene shows De Niro and Irons climbing up a sheer cliff toward the top of a mountain where the Indian tribe lives. De Niro has chosen to weigh himself down by strapping a huge net bag to his waist, full of all his armor and weapons. These represent his life and his evil, violent ways. After much struggle and pain, not allowing anyone else to help him, the slave trader reaches the top with the priest.

The Indians greet the priest warmly, but then see the slave trader pulling himself up over the edge of the cliff to the top with all his weapons. They immediately surround him and put a knife to his throat. He is too exhausted to fight, and knows he deserves to be killed. The priest then speaks quietly to the chief, and the chief in turn speaks to his warriors. They take the knife and cut, not his throat, but rather the rope holding the bag of weapons to his waist. The bag rolls and bounces back down the cliff, crashing into the river at the bottom. De Niro, the slave trader, breaks down, sobbing with joy. Instead of the death he deserved, he received life from the very people he had sinned against.

After we shut off the video projector, the room was silent except for the soft crying of several students. The Holy Spirit was again ministering grace to these students, deep in their souls. It was like being on holy ground; his presence was there.