Bishop Oscar Romero and
now St. Oscar Romero, was the archbishop of El Salvador, when he was shot at
and killed on March 24, 1980, while standing behind the altar in church,
preparing the gifts of the offertory. After becoming the archbishop, he became
a vociferous opponent of the unjust regime which was repressing and killing the
poor and the peasants. Any voice against the regime was silenced with brutal
force.
St. Oscar Romero’s final
two sermons are noteworthy. On the evening before his death, he preached reconciliation
to the soldiers who were being used by the regime. But this was not a
reconciliation whereby the church was folding before the powers of the day, but
was the reconciliation asking the soldiers to repent and change. He said “I want
to make a special appeal to soldiers, national guardsmen, and policemen; each
of you is one of us. The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters.
When you hear a man telling you to kill, remember God’s words, ‘thou shalt not
kill.’ No soldier is obliged to obey a law contrary to the law of God. In the
name of God, in the name of our tormented people, I beseech you, I implore you;
in the name of God, I command you to stop the repression.”
On the day of his death
he preached, “May this body immolated and this blood sacrificed for humans
nourish us also, so that we may give our body and our blood to suffering and to
pain- like Christ, not for self, but to impart notions of justice and peace to
our people.” St. Oscar Romero talks of a reconciliation where he calls the
soldiers and others to stop killing their brothers and sisters, their country
men and women. It is a call to reconciliation by listening to God’s voice and
God’s call to stop the repression against God’s people. He also makes a call to
be nourished by the body and blood of Christ and to then give up our life for
the justice and peace of our people.
Lent is not just a time
to be quiet, meditative and obedient to the powers of the day. Lent is a time
to make a call for repentance. That then leads to reconciliation. The body and
blood of Christ that we partake of also gives us the strength to further and
fight for this call for repentance-based reconciliation. To be shot at near the
altar of the Lord was perhaps the biggest acceptance of the success of the fight
that St. Oscar Romero was leading.
May lent remind us of the
blood shed by martyrs like St. Oscar Romero. Let us pray that this shedding of
blood changes our notion of reconciliation from one of bending before authority
to asking those listening to authority to reform and change. Amen.
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