The Scandal of Redemption. Oscar Romero

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      Never for a moment, however, did Romero lose track of the central purpose of these homilies: not to report the news of the day but to proclaim the gospel. “I want to reaffirm that my sermons are not political,” he said. “Naturally, they touch on politics, and they touch on the reality of the people, but their aim is to shed light and to tell you what it is that God wants.”

      During the three years of Romero’s leadership, pressures only increased. There were moments of hope – a military coup installed a new government, and he continued to try to work with the country’s political leaders, who sought both his support and his silence. He offered his support in whatever he felt was beneficial for the people, but was never silent in the face of ongoing repression. During this time, Romero also faced a growing rift in the church hierarchy: many opposed him, believing that he was only stirring up trouble, afraid of repercussions. Particularly hard was the opposition of all but one of his fellow bishops: this lack of unity, he saw, contributed to the escalating repression and violence inflicted on the suffering people.

      He met with leaders of the leftist revolutionary groups who periodically occupied church buildings. He offered the hospitality of the church to those who needed sanctuary from the vengeance of the military, but refused to condone the violence or the kidnappings that were the tactics of the guerilla groups. For his willingness to speak with members of these groups, and for his condemnation of the violence of the military, he was called a communist, accused of abandoning or politicizing the gospel.

      In spite of this severe opposition, Romero sought every week to lead his flock to faith, hope, and love through following Christ. He sensed that his time was short. In the years he served as archbishop, dozens of priests who spoke out against the violence of the regime and the economic inequalities of the country were imprisoned, tortured, or expelled. Five were murdered. He realized that in all probability, his own turn was coming. In late February of 1980, he wrote:

      I express my consecration to the heart of Jesus…. I place under his loving providence all my life, and I accept with faith in him my death, however hard it be…. For me to be happy and confident, it is sufficient to know with assurance that in him is my life and my death, that in spite of my sins I have placed my trust in him and shall not be disappointed, and others will carry on with greater wisdom and holiness the works of the church and the nation.

      Several days later, in an interview, he told the reporter, “You can tell them, if they succeed in killing me, then I pardon them, and I bless those who may carry out the killing. But I wish that they could realize that they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God – the people – will never perish.”

      On March 23, in his homily, he spoke directly to the army:

      Brothers, you are a part of our own people. You are killing your own brother and sister campesinos, and against any order a man may give to kill, God’s law must prevail: “You shall not kill!” (Exod. 20:13). No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to observe an immoral law. It is time now for you to reclaim your conscience and obey your conscience rather than the command to sin…. In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise up each day more tumultuously toward heaven, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression!

      Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot to death the next day, on March 24, 1980, as he held a memorial Mass for a friend’s mother.

      ROMERO’S ASSASSINATION was only one of an estimated seventy-five thousand deaths during what became a full-fledged civil war in El Salvador. But through his death his witness has only grown. Romero was entrusted with teaching and leading Christ’s flock in a particular place and time, and that is what he did. He followed his Lord. He called wrong wrong. He spoke on behalf of the poor, called for faith in God, and enjoined all to obey Christ’s teachings. He pointed men and women of every position towards the hope of the gospel and pleaded for unity among believers.

      The selections in this book come from Romero’s radio homilies and from the diary he kept for the last several years of his life (1977–1980). Originally addressed to his own people, to inspire and encourage them as they sought God’s kingdom in the midst of unimaginable hardship, his words now speak across time and across all historical and cultural contexts to anyone who seeks God’s justice and redemption today. Romero’s signal, despite all opposition, has gotten through.

       Carolyn Kurtz

      DIARY, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1978

      A visit to the town of Dulce Nombre de María in the department of Chalatenango, arranged with the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart, who work in that city and have some problems locally. Nevertheless, my arrival there and my visit were very moving experiences for me: the meeting in the town, the celebration of Mass, the meeting we had later with the celebrants of the word, catechists, and other groups active in the church. It is a community that gives real hope, a community that is alive….

      A disagreeable detail when I entered the town was the aggressive posture of a member of the National Guard, who only got out of the middle of the street when the crowd that accompanied me at that time was very near. I noticed how surprised people, especially the children, were by this gesture, and I could easily see that they are planting seeds in Dulce Nombre de María of what they call a “psychological war”. I saw this in the people who arrived from the small villages — a kind of fear, worse because they had circulated a rumor that I was going to come with some guerillas and they tried to dissuade the people from going to participate in the ceremony and the meetings that we had planned.

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      The Creator

      HOW WONDERFUL IT IS, sisters and brothers, to feel governed by God, placed under God’s sovereignty! That is what the Holy Bible means when it says that there is no power that does not come from God and that authority must be obeyed because it comes from God (Rom. 13:1). But the Bible also says that the human sovereign, the one who commands, must not command anything apart from what God wants; moreover, it says that authority is to be respected only because it reflects God’s sacred power. When human authority contravenes God’s law and violates the rights, the freedom, and the dignity of human beings, then it is time to cry out as Saint Peter did in the Bible, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). All power comes from God, and therefore rulers cannot use their authority capriciously but only according to the Lord’s will. God’s providence aims to govern the nations, and the rulers are only his ministers, servants of God like all the rest of his creatures.

      THE BIBLE SAYS that he is a just God (Wis. 12:13–18): “You do not judge unjustly.” “Your power is the source of justice.” Consider the richness of this concept of justice. Justice is the manifestation of power. A power is not true power unless it is just. God himself, who can do what he wills, does not abuse power; indeed, he cannot abuse it because he is just; he is justice par excellence. God’s power is illuminated by his infinite justice. “You judge with moderation.” This is the eternal serenity of God; he does not get impatient. He is the God who holds the reins of all peoples and all human beings, and that is why his justice is restrained; it is justice that is serene and holy.

      Still another title that comes from today’s readings is “merciful God.” “Your universal sovereignty makes you spare all.” “You govern us with great indulgence because you can do whatever you want.”… Dear sisters and brothers, this is our God. Let us not forget him; let us respect him, realizing that he is the source of all the joy and the confidence of our faith. May the God that Jesus Christ reveals to us as Father, as providence, as goodness, always capture our hearts so that we will serve him not out of fear but out of love.

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