| "Who are these, robed in white,and where have they | | | | grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who |
| come from?" | | | | love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in |
| Oscar Romero | | | | this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves |
| Archbishop of San Salvador, 1980,and a Martyr of El | | | | me must follow me, and where I am, there will my |
| Salvador | | | | servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will |
| Peter Menkin, Obl Cam OSB | | | | honor. |
| Church of Our Saviour (Episcopal) | | | | It is that God raises up men to do justice and do |
| Mill Valley, CA USA | | | | right, to transform the world as Oscar Romero did in |
| March 24, 2010 | | | | El Salvador and inspire the world, displaying the plight |
| Wednesday morning Eucharist | | | | of the poor in his land. As one writer explains it, Does |
| Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2009 | | | | Romero's life have lessons for us? Perhaps the most |
| On the web: | | | | important is that God still works wonders with weak |
| Revelation 7:13-17 | | | | and imperfect human beings like us. He brings about |
| Psalm 31:15-24 | | | | his salvation with weak human instruments: David the |
| John 12:23-32 | | | | shepherd boy, Moses the stutterer, Mary the |
| In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. | | | | handmaid of Nazareth, Peter the head- strong |
| Archbishop Oscar Romero, martyr, entered the | | | | fisherman, Paul the headstrong Pharisee, and Oscar |
| popular mind of the world when he was assassinated | | | | Romero, the obsessive-compulsive perfectionist, the |
| in El Salvador. The film "Romero," circa 1989 and | | | | scrupulous but docile man who only wanted to do |
| reviewed by Roger Ebert, made him ever more part | | | | what God asked of him. |
| of the popular culture. Film reviewer Ebert writes in | | | | Here is an example of Oscar Romero's preaching and |
| 1989 of the 1980 assassination: | | | | the martyr's concern. We get an historical look at the |
| The film has a good heart, and the Julia performance | | | | man's true conviction regarding the poor. This |
| is an interesting one, restrained and considered. This | | | | example shows how he was explicit, as he had been |
| Romero is not a firebrand but a reasonable man who | | | | in his reports to the Pope of the way the poor and |
| cannot deny the evidence of his eyes and his | | | | downtrodden were treated in El Salvador. In this |
| conscience. The film's weakness is a certain | | | | famous pastoral letter released in November 1976, he |
| implacable predictability: We can feel at every | | | | reflects on the plight of the thousands of coffee |
| moment what must happen next, and the over-all | | | | plantation workers in his diocese: |
| trajectory of the film seems ordained even in the | | | | "The Church must cry out by command of God: |
| first few shots. As a result, the film doesn't stir many | | | | ‘God has meant the earthand all it contains for |
| passions, and it seems more sorrowing than angry. | | | | the use of the whole human race. Created |
| Romero was a good man, he did what his heart told | | | | wealthshould reach all in just form, under the aegis of |
| him to do and he died for his virtues. It is a story | | | | justice and accompaniedby charity…' It saddens and |
| told every day in Latin America. | | | | concerns us to see the selfishness with whichmeans |
| My own sensibility of this Holy Man who we celebrate | | | | and dispositions are found to nullify the just wage of |
| on this March day is not so glib. He sought God in | | | | theharvesters. How we would wish that the joy of |
| Christ in his quiet, introspective way and found | | | | this rain of rubies and allthe harvests of the earth |
| himself transformed by the plight of the poor. This | | | | would not be darkened by the tragic sentenceof the |
| enormous change of heart and his integrity of action | | | | Bible: ‘Behold, the day wage of laborers that cut |
| for this conservative cleric of the Roman Catholic | | | | your fieldsdefrauded by you is crying out, and the |
| Church demonstrated his love of God and his | | | | cries of the reapers have reachedthe ears of the |
| willingness to die for God and his Church: | | | | Lord' [James 5:4]" |
| "As a Christian," he remarked, "I do not believe in | | | | |
| death without resurrection. If they kill me, I shall arise | | | | Shall we honor this man with a Psalm from our |
| in the Salvadoran people." | | | | reading today? Yes, let us do that as end to this |
| The martyr as reflected as statement in our Gospel | | | | homily. |
| reading today is one who has followed Christ. The | | | | Before we end this homily, remember, the |
| cross is his, Oscar Romero's, reward. It was the | | | | Archbishop was gunned down while performing a |
| Priest Oscar Romero who lived the cross long before | | | | funeral mass in the Chapel of Divine Providence |
| he became a martyred Christian. He wrote as a | | | | Hospital. He had said recently, before his |
| young man some prophetic words about his way of | | | | assassination: |
| life when he was a seminarian in Rome, and that he | | | | "Those who surrender to the service of the poor |
| published there in the students' magazine of the Latin | | | | through love of Christwill live like the grain of wheat |
| American College. He did this in March of 1940, when | | | | that dies…The harvest comes because ofthe grain |
| he was twenty-two years old. He writes of the | | | | that dies…We know that every effort to improve |
| priesthood as a sharing in the cross and resurrection | | | | society, aboveall when society is so full of injustice |
| of Christ: | | | | and sin, is an effort that Godblesses, that God |
| This is your heritage, O, priest: the cross. And this is | | | | wants, that God demands of us." |
| your mission: to portion out the cross. Bearer of | | | | Here is an excerpt from Psalm 31, and it explains by |
| pardon and peace, the priest runs to the bed of the | | | | considering Oscar Romero's life and death how God |
| dying, and a cross in his hand is the key that opens | | | | finds a way to save our life though we may give and |
| the heavens and closes the abyss. | | | | lose our lives. This is the way of the Cross: |
| The priesthood, Romero said, means "to be, with | | | | Make your face to shine upon your servant, *and in |
| Christ, a crucified one who redeems, and to be, with | | | | your loving-kindness save me." |
| Christ, a risen one who apportions resurrection and | | | | LORD, let me not be ashamed for having called upon |
| life. | | | | you; *rather, let the wicked be put to shame;let |
| Regarding another Gospel selection for this special | | | | them be silent in the grave. |
| day, [John 12:23-32], Christ was crucified on the cross | | | | Let the lying lips be silenced which speak against the |
| and though he prayed to prevail in the earthly life, to | | | | righteous, *haughtily, disdainfully, and with contempt. |
| avoid death and the cross, it was His to bear. So it | | | | How great is your goodness, O LORD!which you |
| was this way for Oscar Romero, the quiet | | | | have laid up for those who fear you; *which you |
| Archbishop who in his lifetime gave sermons over the | | | | have done in the sight of allfor those who put their |
| radio. The selected Gospel says: | | | | trust in you. |
| "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be | | | | |
| glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat | | | | Amen. |
| falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single | | | | |