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Handout #192 |
| The Good Shepherd: a sermon preached in Quechua to the Indians of Peru (1646 A.D.) |
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Francisco Davila (1573-1647 A.D.), a Spanish priest who was
born and died in Peru, was very sensitive to the drama of the Indians of
Peru, to the way in which they were ravaged, to the miseries caused by
colonial conquest, and to the destruction of their traditional society. In
this sermon given in Quechua, an Indian language, he shows both a great
understanding of his flock, but also a readiness to justify the misfortune
of the Indians in terms of providence, something that a modern reader finds
painful.
I am the good shepherd of the llamas, the shepherd with a great heart. For his llamas he has no fear of death. The shepherd who receives wages, and whose animals, his llamas, do not belong to him, when he sees a puma leaping, flees and runs away as fast as he can. The puma seizes a Ram and scatters the others. And that is because the shepherd receives wages, because the animals are not his. I am the good shepherd who knows his animals, and the animals also know me. But if he is the shepherd, who and what are his llamas, his animals? We are, and we alone. All human beings, men and women, are the llamas of Jesus Christ. Perhaps one of you may now say in your heart: 'Father, we others, we Indians, are not as the whites; we have a different origin, a different form, and so we are not the llamas of God, and the God of the whites is not the God of the Indians. Since the time of our ancestors we have had our huacca, our idols, and our umu, our priests. Moreover, before the whites came here the runas (the Indians) multiplied prodigiously in the wild sierra, on the heathland. The maize, the sweet potato, the quinua, the occa, the llama, the animals which provide wool, all this food was limitless. At that time there were no thieves ... But since the white men have come, all the runas have become thieves. If that is the case, then we Indians are different from the whites, we are not the same thing. Consequently, we cannot see how we can be the llamas, the animals of Jesus Christ. Because of that, we others, we Indians, are only Christians outwardly, in appearance; we feign the mass, the sermon, the confession, because we are afraid of the padre, the corregidor. Our hearts think only of our huacca, because with them things went well with us. And now, see that we have suffering and the villages which once became Christian have disappeared. Even their names have gone and we do not know them. The whites have taken all our fields. And spinning, weaving, making rugs, is something reserved for the Corregidor. My son, I am glad that you have said all that, and glad to have heard it. Glad in one part of my mind, but in another I am pained and saddened. Why am I glad? Because I know your heart, what you think, and that I can care for you as though you were sick. And why am I saddened? It is because up to now the Indians have not believed, have not accepted the word of God, though they have heard so many sermons, so much teaching ...Hear me and take heed. All that happens, life and death, multiplication and disappearance, health and disease, everything in this world and the other is solely in accordance with the will of God. Consequently, when it is his will, the people of one nation conquer another nation and dominate it; and another day, the conquerors become the conquered. But many times, if he annihilates a province with many towns and many people, we can see that it is because they had sinned. It is because of their prior faults that God has begun to chastise the Incas, making them die and the runas along with them. And God has not done that simply by chance; he has done it with his very great, insurpassable knowledge. The whites have been the alguazils of God. They have come for that purpose ... Otherwise, for not having worshipped the true God, and also for other faults, the souls of all the Indians would go to hell ... We are all created by God; we are the animals of Jesus Christ. He is our true shepherd, who has given us his word to eat so that we might be saved thanks to it and he might lead us on high, into the golden enclosure, the country in which one does not have to die. Whereas in the life that you lead it is the accursed devil, the liar, who is your shepherd, to lead you with his lies to the torments Of hell... Spit on the devil, the sorcerer, the witch, and follow God alone, Jesus Christ ... |
