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| St. Óscar Romera of El Salvador |
"An accommodating Church
that seeks prestige
without the pain of the cross
is not the authentic
Church of Jesus Christ."
+ Óscar Romero,
Martyr,
1917-1980 A.D.
Emmaus City Church continues to soak in stories of people throughout the past millenia who have followed Jesus, with Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place as a wonderful treasure trove. As these dear sisters and brothers throughout time and space sought to reflect the humility and holiness of Christ, so do we this year: "Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness — without it no one will see the Lord." + Hebrews 12:14 This post features an excerpt on Oscar Romero who was assinated on this day 45 years ago. During this season of Lent, I hope Romero's story encourages you as it has me so that you might also walk this journey with anticipation for how Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life, will overcome darkness and death in your life during this season.
Óscar Romero Peacemaking Rooted in Love Óscar Romero served Christ amid the clashing agendas of the Cold War. He was archbishop of El Salvador during a violent civil war between the military-led government and revolutionary guerrillas. Rival Cold War powers funded each side of the war and intensified its fury. Romero was once known for his cautious and conservative approach to ministry, but this changed with the outbreak of widespread violence. Thousands of impoverished people cried out against both the government and the guerrillas and were subsequently imprisoned or murdered. Seeing these evils, Romero was compelled to speak boldly for human rights and the poor. "Let's say to everyone," said Romero, "we must take the cause of the poor seriously, as if it were our own cause, or even more, for it is indeed the very cause of Jesus Christ." Romero's courageous defense of the poor earned him many powerful enemies on all sides of the conflict. His critiques of Marxism challenged many revolutionaries. "If one understands by 'Marxism' a materialistic, atheistic ideology that is taken to explain the whole of human existence and gives a false interpretation of religion," Romero said, "then it is completely untenable by a Christian." Allies of the government opposed Romero for his forceful preaching against the status quo. "A Church that doesn't provoke any crises, a Gospel that doesn't unsettle, a Word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a Word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what Gospel is that?" Government allies were also threatened by Romero's stand against injustice in the government and military. After a military slaughter of men, women, and children in March 1980, Romero preached a powerful sermon calling on soldiers to abandon their posts. "No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. ... I implore, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression." The next day, Romero was in a hospital chapel to celebrate Mass. As he stood at the altar, a government agent entered the room and shot Romero to death. Chaos and violence continued, even at Romero's funeral, where smoke bombs went off and gunfire broke out amid the ceremony of over 250,000 attendees. A delegate from Pope John Paul II eulogized Romero during the ceremony. Despite the chaos in El Salvador still evident at the funeral, the eulogist's message was one of hope, calling Romero a "beloved, peacemaking man of God ... (whose) blood will give fruit to brotherhood, love and peace." Scripture "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons and daughters of God." + Matthew 5:9  The Óscar Romero Prayer It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view ... We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Meditation: Peacemaking Rooted in Love Thomas Hobbes, a seventeenth-century English philosopher, wrote, "Bellum omnium contra omnes," a Latin phrase meaning, "the war of all against all" or "the war of everyone against everyone." Hobbes describes this as the natural state of humanity — a state of continual fear. Fear is underneath all conflict. Fear of not being enough, fear of being left out, fear of being taken advantage of, fear of being the wrong kind of person, fear of being victimized, fear of losing your cherished way of life. Our news media outlets are fear factories. The way to get clicks and sell ad space is to prey on people's fear. There's a lot of money to be made in making people afraid. If you're willing to stoke people's fear, you can get candidates elected and sell people things they don't want or need. and since perfect love is the antidote to fear (1 John 4:8), all peacemaking must be rooted in love. In other words, true peacemaking in the Way of Jesus must not be rooted in fear of conflict. To be a peacemaker is actually not a very peace-ful vocation. but they do so motivated by the love of Christ. Therein lies the crucial difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking. Peacekeeping fears conflict and seeks to maintain the status quo, often at the expense of truth-telling and justice. Peacemaking does not fear conflict and therefore does not fear to tell the truth and seek justice. Peacekeeping is surface-level homeostasis. Peacemaking is more like surgery to remove a malignant tumor — invasive and often painful. The gospel paradox of peace is that the cross — a historic symbol of conflict, war, torture, and violence — is now, for us, a symbol of peace. To make peace in the Way of Jesus is, therefore, always for the good of the other at a cost to the self. Peacemaking requires sacrifice. It did for Jesus; it does for us too. Óscar Romero was a peacemaker in the Way of Jesus, and thus his life was filled with conflict and ended in violence. Peacemaking is now part of the vocation of all Christians. Peacemaking is living out the shalom of the new creation, starting now. Frederick Bauerschmidt, professor of Loyola University, has written, "If Thomas Hobbes is wrong and the book of Genesis is right, then human reconciliation with God, our return to the natural state of things, is inseparable from our reconciliation with each other. To end the war of humanity against God is to end the war of everyone against everyone." What conflict is disrupting your corner of the world? Where might you, motivated by love (and not fear), enter that conflict as a peacemaker in the Way of Jesus? Prayer Almighty and everlasting God, You created us in Your own image. Grant us, inspired by the witness of Your servant Óscar Romero, grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and to help us to use our freedom rightly in the establishment of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of Your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. pgs. 59-61 The Celebrity & The Saint The celebrity demands, "Look at me!" The saint whispers, "Look at God." The celebrity says, "Try to be like me, but you'll never be like me." The saint says, "Why would anyone want to be like me? Who has God made you?" The celebrity is ever ascending, climbing the tower of Babel to the double-platinum throne. The saint is ever descending, saying, "Please have my seat, I insist." The celebrity offers you everything you want but can never have. The saint offers you the thing you fear but will redeem your soul. The celebrity is a Ferrari screaming down the highway with music blaring. The saint is the freshwater creek beside the highway that almost nobody ever notices and is nearly impossible to hear over the roar of traffic. Yet the water murmurs as it wanders over stones and around oak roots. It is not silent. + Ben Lansing & D.J. Marotta, Our Church Speaks Bonus Reflection: With Christ, God has injected Himself into history. With the birth of Christ, God's reign is now inaugurated in human time. On this night, as every year for twenty centuries, we recall that God's reign is now in this world and that Christ has inaugurated the fullness of time. His birth attests that God is now marching with us in history, that we do not go alone. Humans long for peace, for justice, for a reign of divine law, for something holy, for what is far from earth's realities. We can have such a hope, not because we ourselves are able to construct the realm of happiness that God's holy words proclaim, but because the builder of a reign of justice, of love, and of peace is already in the midst of us. + Óscar Romero, December 25, 1977 More Our Church Speaks Highlights: Many blessings of peace and presence, Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan |
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