Luke
19:28-40
Isaiah
50:4-7
Philippians
2:6-11
Luke
22:14—23:56
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Today we are witnesses
to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The Greatest
Story Ever Told.
Jesus knew
what the future held.
To get to the
Resurrection he must endure betrayal, denial, torture, and crucifixion.
Jesus knew there’s only one path to
the Resurrection and it involves sacrifice, and suffering and death. It’s the
same for us all. None of us is getting out of here alive.
Jesus knew
his suffering would come from speaking truth to power, pointing out hypocrisy,
and asking people to turn away from evil.
In the 20th
century, the world experienced a man go through the same suffering, speak the
same truth to corrupt power, point out the same hypocrisy, and ask people to
turn away from evil.
His name:
Archbishop Oscar Romero. Educated in
Rome, Romero was seen by other priests in his home country as someone who would
serve only the rich and powerful in El Salvador. He was seen as too
conservative. There was much anger among the priests of El Salvador when he was
named Archbishop.
But just a
few weeks after ascending to the position, one of his priests was gunned down
by a government death squad.
Jesuit Fr. Rutilio
Grande served one of the poorest parish communities, in the tiny towns of Aguilares
and Paisnal, El Salvador. His preaching lifted up the people from their
suffering and despair. By sharing a message of salvation to peasants,
Grande angered the status quo and it marked him for execution.
When Fr.
Grande was shot dead on a deserted road between his two parishes, Archbishop
Oscar Romero immediately drove to the site, and his life would be changed
forever.
He knew what
was happening in El Salvador was wrong (the deaths, the massacres, the
disappearances). He knew the rich would never stand for peasants rising up to
take power away from the wealthy and privileged. He knew he must do something.
He had to
choose sides. He chose the poor and marginalized. He chose the oppressed, the
families of the disappeared. He chose to follow Jesus to Jerusalem and to death.
On Sunday,
March 23rd, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero preached his own death
sentence.
In a homily
broadcast nationwide, Romero implored the military with the following words, “Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an
order against the law of God … in the name of this suffering people, whose
laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuous, I beg you, I beseech you, I
order you in the name of God, stop the repression.”
The next day while doing Mass at a
Hospital chapel near his humble San Salvador home, a gunman took Oscar Romero’s
life as he was preparing the altar after preaching his final homily.
That
was March 24th, 1980.
Romero predicted his own
death, saying, “If they kill me, I will arise in the Salvadoran people.”
This year on March 24th, we
had the honor to be in El Salvador co-leading Maryknoll missionaries to
celebrate the first official Feast Day of St. Oscar Romero, Bishop and Martyr.
Last
October, Oscar Romero was officially recognized as a saint by the Catholic
Church.
Our
group was blessed to march with thousands of Catholic El Salvadoran faithful
through the streets of San Salvador to an open-air, evening Mass to mark the
occasion.
St.
Oscar Romero was criticized by many during his lifetime -- the rich and the
powerful, some in the Church in Latin America, in Rome, and, yes, here in the
United States.
Now, he’s basking in the glow of
heaven.
Today our eyes are open to the consequences of speaking
out in righteousness. Our eyes are open to the realities of scorn and
persecution. Our eyes are open to the truth about the Passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
And through
His Passion, the light of Christ now shines through the life, death and now
sainthood of St. Oscar Romero.
This
is the Good News we can all share with the world.
