Friday, 21 July 2017

Gratitude 131

So let's imagine that even though the Spanish invaders and occupiers of the New World were incurably violent douchebags that there might have been also a few authentic Christian souls from      that country.  Perhaps even among the sad and sorry products of the Inquisition there might have been one or two real people of Christ, though I still have my doubts.  But let's try to imagine anyway, Gentle Reader, perhaps a church that was not merely the depraved, comprised and degraded shell of Spanish and European Catholic Christendom.  Perhaps we could envision even a handful of people who really knew their Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ; people who eschewed the use of violence; Christians moved by love, compassion and gentleness; people who reflected the love and beauty of God in every facet of their lives; individuals who would never dream of forced conversions, of burning heretics at the cross (clearly a Freudian slip, Gentle Reader.  Of course, I meant to write "stake", but so it goes, eh?) nor of mistreating others, nor of taking up the sword; people whose every act was an act of mercy and compassion, who were moved by the sufferings of others and took extreme care to not add to their sufferings but to tend to their wounds in a totally respectful manner.

They would have been the very sort of Christians who all would have been rounded up by the Spanish Inquisition and burned publicly as heretics because such Christians would not have been viewed as faithful Catholics but as heretical protestant scum.

But let us enjoy a suspension of disbelief, shall we?  Let us imagine a boatload of real Christians, not in any way connected with the Spanish Crown and certainly not with the deplorable heretical Catholic Church.  They likely would not have had friends among the Conquistadores, who likely would have taken every possible measure to resist, oppose and undermine those Christians.  On their own those Christians would have met with the Aztecs and the priests and would have made an effort to learn their Nahuatl language.  The Mexica would have found those people particularly strange but likely more the fulfilment of prophesy than their bloodthirsty compatriots.   There was that ancient prophecy of Quetzalcoatl returning in a boat full of white men with beards.  Had they been so received, these imaginary Christians, who only knows what might have happened?  Perhaps they would all have been taken prisoner and sacrificed to their sun god.  Or maybe just some of them. 

It might have taken a few successful boatloads of Christian missionaries to have survived the sacrificial knife and to have really made an impact on the Aztecs.  Given the history of the Church and the blood of the martyrs being its seed, I would guess that a lot of Christian blood would have already flowed down those temple steps.

But something else would have happened.  While being well aware of the Christians' horror and opposition to human sacrifice, the Aztecs would also have been tremendously moved by the power of their love, such as they had never experienced nor imagined or thought of in their own spiritual practices.  The Christians would also have been apt and able defenders against the ravages of the Conquistadores, not taking violent but passive resistant action.  It is even likely that some of the Spanish Conquistadores might have been won over by the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit working through the missionaries.

It is anyone's guess just how things would have developed from there.  Perhaps nothing would have really changed.  The Mexica would still barely hobble through the conquest and resulting oppression by the Spanish.  They still would have died from imported disease, they still would have been impoverished, and many would also have persisted in practicing their religion, even committing human sacrifice, regardless the abundant evidence that the earth would still go on turning, the sun would continue shining and the rain would not stop falling.


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