Jesus Said Theyll Kill Me and I Will Rise Again

by Scott Wright
Pax Christi Metro D.C.-Baltimore

"When the Lord restored the captives of Zion, we thought we were dreaming. So our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy." – Psalm 126, responsorial psalm at the beatification

On May 23, Archbishop Oscar Romero was officially recognized as "blest" by the church in a anniversary in San Salvador 35 years later the beloved pastor, prophet and martyr was assassinated while celebrating Mass at the chantry, March 24, 1980.

Why was he killed? As many poor Salvadorans say, "because he spoke the truth … because he defended the poor." These words, often remembered by Jon Sobrino, SJ, are at the heart of what it ways to say that Archbishop Romero was "a martyr for justice."

"In truth, Monseñor Romero is for all of u.s.a.," a recent editorial of the Jesuit University (UCA) affirmed. "But one cannot hide the fact that he was martyred out of hatred of the faith and, because of that, equally Pope Francis has noted, he became and is a martyr for justice. He was martyred because he faithfully followed, without fail, in the steps of Jesus in choosing decisively to side with the victims of injustice and violence. This is why he is a saint."

The day earlier he was murdered, in a homily circulate to the nation that sealed his fate, Romero called on the Salvadoran government to end the slaughter of its people: "In the name of God, and in the name of this long-suffering people, whose laments rise to heaven every day more tumultuous, I beseech you, I beg yous, I command y'all in the name of God: 'Stop the repression!'"

At present, 35 years afterward, El Salvador is even so a state of lights and shadows, of a past that remains to be healed and a future still uncertain, but on this solar day of the beatification, information technology is a present full of joy.

Non since the Un Peace Accords in 1992 and the decision of a twelve-year civil state of war that cost the lives of 75,000 people, and several meg more displaced or in exile, had then many people gathered in San Salvador. On that day, too, people came to give thanks for the end of the war and the first mean solar day of peace, "as in a dream," their hearts "filled with joy."

Today, in a celebration that drew more than 250,000 people, and perhaps every bit many as 350,000, Pope Francis sent a message of "groovy joy," marking the beatification on the eve of the feast of Pentecost, the nativity of the church:  "Archbishop Romero, who built peace with the forcefulness of love, gave witness to the faith with his life, given to the farthermost."

Comparing Romero to Moses, the pope added: "The Lord never abandons his people in difficulties…. He sees oppression, He hears the weep of hurting of His children, and comes to their aid to free them from oppression and bring them to a new land, fertile and spacious, that 'flows with milk and honey'…. In times of difficult coexistence, Archbishop Romero knew how to lead, defend and protect his flock, remaining true-blue to the Gospel and in communion with the whole church."

For those who lived through those turbulent years, however, they remembered how Romero was bitterly attacked and labeled both every bit a communist and as a terrorist past the wealthy, by the armed forces, and past many conservatives sectors of the church building.

Still, as Central Angelo Amato, caput of the Vatican'southward Congregation for Saints' Causes and presider at the ceremony, reminded the oversupply gathered to commemorate Romero equally a martyr:

"Oscar Romero is a low-cal for the nations and salt of the earth. While his persecutors have disappeared in the shadow of forgetfulness and death, Romero'southward retention instead continues alive and gives consolation to the poor and marginalized of the earth."

He added: "His preference for the poor was not ideological but evangelical. His charity extended likewise to the persecutors to whom he preached conversion."

"A Martyr for Justice" in "A Poor Church of the Poor"

"The souls of the merely are in the mitt of God, and no torment shall touch them…. They shall be profoundly blest, because God tried them and found them worthy." – Wisdom three:one-9, first reading at the beatification

For many, Pope Francis' beatification of Oscar Romero is a sign of the kind of church building that the pope desires: "a poor church of the poor."

At the very moment of the anniversary Archbishop Romero was declared "Blessed," bells rang out and the optics of the crowd turned upward to witness a rare and beautiful rainbow halo around the midday dominicus. It seemed a plumbing fixtures recognition, or providential "sign," and validation of the sacrifice of the Salvadoran people who suffered during 12 years of war, a people who had already declared Romero a "saint" and a "martyr" 35 years before.

Romero's martyrdom had long been celebrated in popular culture, as well. "They tin kill the prophet, simply non the voice of justice," read the words of ane of the many songs popularized by the Christian base communities following Romero'southward assassination. The chorus concludes, "They will impose silence, but history will not exist silent."

By the sheer number of people nowadays at the beatification, and their enthusiastic applause, there was little doubt that Romero has, in words attributed to Romero before his death "risen in his people." Families from rural communities in Chalatenango and Morazán, Cuscatlán and Usulután, many survivors of massacres by army battalions trained by the U.S. at the School of the Americas, all came to celebrate the official recognition of Romero's martyrdom.

Young and old, those who remembered the suffering and violence of the war as though information technology were yesterday, and those – possibly the majority who were born after the state of war – who had only heard stories of those years from parents and grandparents, all gathered from the furthest corners of El Salvador, Latin America and around the world to commemorate this day, fulfilling by their very presence the words of the psalm read during the celebration:

"Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy. Those who go along weeping carrying sacks of seed, volition return with cries of joy, carrying their bundled sheaves." – Psalm 126

The Church Proclaims Blest Oscar Romero a Martyr of the Religion

Just months before, on February 3, 2015, Pope Francis officially declared Archbishop Oscar Romero a martyr of the Church building, assassinated in odium fidae or "hatred of the faith." His beatification ceremony was set for May 23, in San Salvador. Presumably, the canonization to sainthood will accept place at a later date, perhaps in Rome, presided over by the pope.

Throughout San Salvador, church bells rang to mark the occasion. Thirty-5 years had passed since Romero was killed at the altar while jubilant Mass, his decease planned by the armed services and death squads, and financed by wealthy Salvadoran families.

The commission of cardinals and the commission of theologians in Rome were unanimous: "His death was not simply politically motivated, simply due also to hatred of the organized religion that, combined with clemency, would not stay silent when faced with the injustice that implacably and cruelly afflicted the poor and their defenders."

Even the secular printing found the news of Romero's beatification newsworthy. Both The Washington Post and The New York Times carried headlines of the announcement: "Pope Honors Salvadoran Archbishop as Martyr."

In Rome, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator of the crusade for his beatification, held a press briefing: "It is an extraordinary gift for all of the Church at the beginning of this millennium to see rising to the chantry a pastor who gave his life for his people; and this is truthful for all Christians," he said.

"The martyrdom of Romero has given meaning and strength to many Salvadoran families who lost relatives and friends during the ceremonious state of war. His memory immediately became the memory of the victims."

This was clearly evident in the activities, processions, marches and Masses celebrated on the 35^th anniversary of his martyrdom, March 24, 2015, in San Salvador, as well as at his beatification, 2 months later May 23.

Monsignor Ricardo Urioste, Romero'southward closest confidante and one who worked tirelessly to promote the legacy of the martyred archbishop, had waited a very long time to see this twenty-four hours. At present 89, he could say, similar the biblical figure Simeon when the baby Jesus was presented to him in the temple:

"Lord, now yous may let your servant become in peace; your discussion has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a lite to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel." (Luke ii:29-32).

"A Church of the Beatitudes" in the Midst of "A Cloud of Witnesses"

"A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that does not unsettle, a give-and-take of God that does non get under anyone's skin, a give-and-take of God that does not impact the real sin of society in which it is existence proclaimed – what gospel is that?" – Archbishop Romero, April 16, 1978

Who was Archbishop Oscar Romero? Thirty-v years after his martyrdom and in the midst of a joyful celebration of his beatification equally a martyr "for hatred of the faith," many forget how roughshod was the violence that condemned the poor and those who defended them to a cruel fate.

For Romero suffered a prophet's fate, denouncing grave injustices and cruel violence, and announcing paths that led to greater justice and dedicated the life of the poor. For that he was bitterly attacked past those whose misuse of wealth and power he condemned, both in society and in the church. Similar the prophets of sometime, Archbishop Romero was "a sign of contradiction."

Now, more than e'er, with the beatification of Archbishop Romero, it is important to ask, "Who was Oscar Romero? To truly honor his memory, we must recall him equally he was, and remember the conflictive moment in history in which he lived. In the words of the Salvadoran Jesuits:

"Romero spoke out against the suffering of the people and pointed out those who were responsible. He exhorted the rich to share what they had with the poor in guild. He roundly condemned the violence … and encouraged people to turn to social justice to avoid further bloodbaths. In the name of God, he demanded that the orders and commands of the military and constabulary to kill innocent people be disobeyed."

In preparation for the beatification, Jon Sobrino links the true pregnant of "blessed" in "Blessed Oscar Romero" to the meaning of "blessed" in the Beatitudes in the Gospels[1]:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit…. those who mourn…. the meek…. those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…. the merciful…. the pure in centre…. the peacemakers…. those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:1-10).

Those who, like Archbishop Romero, testify to and incarnate in their lives the spirit of the Beatitudes are blessed. They are, equally he was, "common salt of the earth" and "light of the globe," they are those who "work for peace" and, in the last resort, "lay down their lives out of love for their friends."

Only it is always important to call back the real disharmonize that surrounded Archbishop Romero, when he proclaimed the Gospel and defended the poor confronting injustice and violence; to call back that the Beatitudes also pronounced judgment against those who oppressed the poor:

"Woe to you who are rich…. To you who are total now…. To you who are laughing now…. To you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets" (Luke 6:xx-26).

To respond the question that Jesus puts to his disciples, "Who exercise y'all say that I am?" is to take sides either with the poor or the rich, to defend either life or death, to believe either in a God of life or the idols of death, to follow either the case of the saints or to pay lip service to their lives.

For Sobrino, Romero is somebody who embodied the spirit and practice of the Beatitudes, surrounded every bit he was past "a cloud of witnesses," those victims and martyrs whose names are engraved on the memorial wall in San Salvador. Blest are the poor!

Cipher Is And so Important as Human Life

"Nothing is so important to the church every bit human being life, as the human person, above all, the person of the poor and the oppressed, who, besides being man beings, are also divine beings, since Jesus said that whatsoever is washed to them he takes every bit done to him. That bloodshed, those deaths, are beyond all politics. They touch the very centre of God." – Archbishop Romero, March 16, 1980

Today, 35 years after Romero's assassination, and 23 years after the conclusion of a brutal civil war, the root causes of the conflict continue to manifest themselves in the same divisions that Romero denounced during his brief three years as archbishop due to "structural injustice, institutionalized violence, social sin."

Republic of el salvador continues to be one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, and one in which the state and environs are at great take chances. While transnational mining companies endeavor to extract the mineral wealth from the country, local communities organize to protect the earth and water, and some have paid with their lives for doing and so.

Added to enduring poverty and social violence, massive migration has emptied the land of near a third of the population. The U.Southward., which trained and supported the Salvadoran military with $6 billion during the war, now spends $18 billion on immigration enforcement, building walls on the U.S. – Mexico edge and imprisoning women and children in immigration detention centers every bit they cantankerous the border to flee from gang and drug violence in their country.

Impunity reigns, as the perpetrators of the violence go free, a violence that price 75,000 lives, including Archbishop Romero (March 24, 1980), 6 priests while Romero was still alive, four churchwomen from the Usa (December 2, 1980), and six Jesuits and their two coworkers (November 16, 1989).

Nosotros forget too often how our government backed a repressive military government which was, according to the United nations Truth Commission, responsible for more than 85 percent of the murders committed during the war in El Salvador.

Archbishop Romero, even so, was a fervent defender of human rights, and of the cause of the poor for justice:

"It is the role of the church to assemble into itself all that is human in the people'due south cause and struggle, to a higher place all, in the cause of the poor. The church identifies with the poor when they need their legitimate rights. In our land the right they are demanding is inappreciably more than the right to survive, to escape from misery….

"Whether they call themselves Christian or not, whether they are protected by the authorities, legally or in exercise, or whether they are independent of information technology and opposed to it: if the aim of the struggle is just, the Church volition support information technology with all the power of the Gospel." – Archbishop Romero, Third Pastoral Letter, "The Church and Popular Political Organizations, August 6, 1978

Looking Toward the Future: The Legacy of Archbishop Romero

There is put before the faith of the church … the near central choice: to be in favor of life or to exist in favor of expiry. We see, with cracking clarity, that hither neutrality is impossible. Either we serve the life of Salvadorans, or we are accomplices in their death. And hither what is near fundamental virtually the faith is given expression in history: either nosotros believe in a God of life, or nosotros serve the idols of death." – Archbishop Romero, February 2, 1980

Brazilian bishop Pedro Casaldáliga in one case referred to Romero'southward martyrdom as "his greatest homily," and added "Woe to that people that forgets its martyrs!" What does it hateful to remember the martyrs? What does it mean for us to retrieve Archbishop Romero?

I obvious respond might be, to follow his case. Simply for people in the United States, it is not and so piece of cake. Nosotros must first admit the truth about our past history with El Salvador, before we can truly establish a just relationship with the people, enquire their pardon, and follow the example of Archbishop Romero.

No official apology has e'er been made past a U.S. president for our complicity in the violence that produced 75,000 victims. Such a solemn gesture, however, was made two years ago by prisoners of conscience from the School of Americas Watch (SOAW), before the historic memorial wall in San Salvador that bears the names of the 75,000 people killed, including Archbishop Romero.

By taking their words to heart, we may begin our journey, following the path trod by Archbishop Romero, and the thousands of victims and martyrs who class now "a crucified" and "risen" people:

"Today we stand on Holy Footing, before this historic memorial to the victims and martyrs of the state of war, to humbly ask pardon for the complicity of our nation in bringing so much sorrow, then much destruction, and so much expiry to your people….

"We will continue to struggle, to hope, to cantankerous borders, and to tear downwards walls – like the armed forces bases and the U.S. – United mexican states wall – that divide usa and that take no right to exist because they but oppress, and exclude, and bring suffering and expiry to the poor. We will not be silent, we will resist nonviolently, we will stand in solidarity with the people of El salvador….

"In a few days you will be commemorating the martyrdom of your beloved prophet-martyr, Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed at the altar because he dared to call on your military and our President, 'In the name of God, in the name of the suffering people, stop the repression!'

"Nosotros close by saying thank you. Thank you for receiving our words of pardon. Give thanks you for welcoming united states of america to your country. Thanks for your backbone and dignity and humanity. We are sincere in maxim that our lives accept been forever changed and enriched considering of your lives. You accept shown united states, and testify the world, what it ways to give your lives out of love for others, and to struggle unceasingly simply with joy for some other world founded on justice and solidarity."

Archbishop Oscar Romero and Pope Francis: A New Pentecost for the Church building[2]

"For I am convinced that neither expiry, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor nowadays things, nor future things, nor powers, nor top, nor depth, nor any other animate being will exist able to carve up us from the love of God." – Romans eight:31-39, 2d reading at the beatification

What do Archbishop Romero and Pope Francis take in common? Martin Maier, a High german Jesuit who worked many years in Republic of el salvador attempted to answer that question.

For one, they share the continent of Latin America, marked as it has been by grave inequalities, past military dictatorships, revolutionary movements, a persecuted church, and a country soaked in the blood of the martyrs.

Nonetheless at that place is existent joy in the people, and hope! Romero commented frequently on the joy of his people and added: "I have to listen to the Spirit who speaks to me through his people. . . . The people is my prophet. . . . With this people it is non difficult to be a skillful shepherd." While Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, says: "I can say that the most cute and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to." (EG 7)

The selection for the poor was "the middle of Oscar Romero's spirituality and pastoral activity." This is most evident in his Sunday homilies, where his voice became the voice of the voiceless, proclaiming the suffering and hope of his people. The same can exist said of Pope Francis: "This is why I want a poor Church for the poor. We accept to state, without mincing words, that at that place is an inseparable bond between our religion and the poor."

Such an option has consequences, just that is what the Gospel calls u.s.a. to. For Romero, "If the Church is faithful to her mission of denouncing the sin that brings misery to many, and if she proclaims her hope for a more only, humane world, and so she is persecuted and calumniated, she is branded equally destructive and communist." Only this is precisely the vision Pope Francis has for the Church:

"The thing the Church building needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field infirmary after the boxing . . . to heal wounds. . . . I prefer a Church that is bruised, pain and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church building which is unhealthy from beingness confined and from clinging to its own security."

At the eye of both Archbishop Romero'due south and Pope Francis' vision of the Gospel is "a civilization of love linked to justice. "A civilization of love is not sentimentality," Romero cautions, "it is justice and truth. . . . Considering of this, it is simply a extravaganza of love when we endeavor to patch up with charity what is owed in justice, when nosotros comprehend with an appearance of benignancy what we are failing in social justice. True love means demanding what is just." Pope Francis concurs:

"The planet belongs to all mankind and is meant for all; the mere fact that some people are built-in in places with fewer resources or less development does not justify the fact that they are living with less nobility. . . . It is of import for the whole Church building that welcoming the poor and promoting justice . . . be a focus of all pastoral intendance."

Romero: Martyr for Justice and Martyr for the Option for the Poor[3]

"This is my commandment: love one another as I dear you. No one has greater love than this, to lay downward one's life for one's friends." – John xv:9-17, Gospel reading at the beatification

Archbishop Oscar Romero was i of many prophetic bishops in Latin America, nearly of whom accept passed on. Some, like Bishop Enrique Angelleli in Argentina and Bishop Juan Gerardi in Republic of guatemala, were assassinated by the military. Others, similar Dom Helder Cámara in Brazil and Bishop Leonidas Proaño in Ecuador, were threatened and denounced by the military during their lifetime.

1 of the last prophetic bishops in Latin America, who presided at the xxx^th anniversary mass of Romero's martyrdom in 2010, was Bishop Samuel Ruíz from United mexican states. His words are important, considering they remind usa that Romero was higher up all "a martyr for justice and for the choice for the poor."

Bishop Ruíz recalled a declaration that he and a group of Latin American bishops signed at Romero's funeral in 1980. In part it declared:

"We admire and give thanks for iii things. First, Archbishop Romero announced the faith and was master of the truth; 2nd, he was a zealous defender of justice, and three, he was friend, brother and defender of the poor and oppressed, of peasants and workers, of those who live in the marginal communities. He was an exemplary bishop considering he was a bishop of the poor in a continent that is cruelly marked by the poverty of the great majority; he made his place amongst the poor, defended their cause, and suffered the same fate as them: persecution and martyrdom."

"His death was not isolated, merely formed office of the witness of a Church which, since Medellin and Puebla, opted from a Gospel stance for the poor and oppressed. For that reason we understand better the death by hunger and sickness, the permanent reality of our peoples; as well as the numerous martyrdoms and crosses which has been borne past our continent in these years. These deaths are like that of Jesus: the fruit of injustice and the seed of resurrection."

In a like fashion, at this year's anniversary celebration in San Salvador, Bishop Raúl Vera from Mexico, a close friend of Bishop Ruíz'southward, proclaimed the promise of Romero's legacy in his homily at Divine Providence Hospital chapel:

"Archbishop Romero has been resurrected, non simply in El Salvador, but throughout the whole world. But there is no resurrection without the cross. The cross signifies speaking the truth and defending the life of the people. The only ability the church has is the power of love. This was the vision that Romero had, a pity that arose from deep inside. The Gospel was the life-force that coursed through the veins of his people. This is the neat legacy that he left us, his love for this state and his love for the poor. He proclaimed that another world is possible."

In determination, the beatification of Archbishop Romero is not the end, simply the commencement of a journey of sanctification, simply too of "a poor church building of the poor" that is built-in anew, as it was on the day of Pentecost, of the blood of the martyrs.

In death every bit in life, Romero embodied the witness of a church building committed to mercy and to justice, to the liberation of the poor from everything that stands in the manner of a dignified life, and to a love that knows no limits in its zeal to protect and defend the poor.

And so with conviction, as the people of the Americas proclaim with regard to their beloved martyrs, affirming that life not decease will accept the last discussion, we as well tin say: "Blessed Oscar Romero, San Romero de las Américas: Presente!"

____________

[1][i] Jon Sobrino, "Monseñor Romero, dichoso," in Carta a las Iglesias, No. 661, del 1 a 31 de mayo, 2015.

[2] See Martin Maier, SJ, "The Last Shall Be Showtime: Oscar Romero and the Joy of the Gospel," 2014.

[three] Encounter Bishop Samuel Ruiz, "Monsenor Oscar Arnulfo Romero: Martir de la Justicia y de la Opcion por los Pobres," Homilia pronunciada en el XXX aniversario del martirio de Monsenor Romero, Cripta de Catedral, 24 de marzo, 2010.

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Source: https://paxchristiusa.org/2015/06/01/reflection-archbishop-oscar-romero-if-they-kill-me-i-will-arise-in-the-salvadoran-people/

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