Holiday Thoughts from Oscar Romero

[DemBones DemBones]

Advent should admonish us to discover
in each brother or sister that we greet,
in each friend whose hand we shake,
in each beggar who asks for bread,
in each worker who wants to use the right to join a union,
in each peasant who looks for work in the coffee groves,
the face of Christ.
Then it would not be possible to rob them,
to cheat them,
to deny them their rights.
They are Christ,
and whatever is done to them
Christ will take as done to himself.
This is what Advent is:
Christ living among us.


(Romero was Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, and, because he spoke for the poor, was assassinated while saying Mass.)

[CBHagman]

1. Thank you for posting that.

What I think is often missing in the discussion of faith in the United States is that the Gospel demands something of us, that it's a challenge. It is hard to view each person as a potential emissary of Jesus.

By the way, E.J. Dionne had a beautiful column concerning Oscar Romero today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23566-2004Dec23.html

"Archbishop Romero was murdered on March 24, 1980, because he chose to stand with El Salvador's poor against a repressive regime. 'Brothers, you came from our own people,' Romero told soldiers in El Salvador's army. 'You are killing your own brothers. . . . In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: Stop the repression.'

"How many among the cardinals and bishops and pastors and preachers and televangelists who now enjoy favor in high places would have the courage to do what Archbishop Romero did? In fairness, how many of the rest of us would? Isn't that a question of values?

"A child was born in a manger because there was no room for his family anywhere else. Wasn't that a question of values?"

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Thanks for the link to the fine E.J. Dionne column about Romero.

I was going to add to this thread, anyway, so I'll add what Dionne quoted from Archbishop Romero first:

"No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God -- for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God."


I really liked Dionne's quotes from Bob Kerrey, too:


"In the fall, I got the chance to moderate a post-election panel at Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture in New York. Former senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska noted that on Jan. 1, the quotas protecting what's left of the U.S. textile and apparel industry will end. "Over a 12-month period," he said, "three or four million jobs that are currently paying $8 to $10 an hour are going bye-bye unless those jobs are protected."

"Now, I hazard to guess that most of those individuals will move into the ranks of poverty," Kerrey went on. "They'll move to minimum-wage jobs, which is 20 or 30 percent under poverty today. . . . If it's a young woman who gets pregnant and says, 'I don't have health insurance anymore. I can't -- it's expensive to raise a baby right today' -- that they're more likely to choose an abortion even if Bush appoints anti-Roe v. Wade justices that overturn it, because they're going to make what I consider to be a tragic choice out of economic necessity."

As DIonne asks repeatedly, "Isn't that a question of values?"


Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas.

[AngryOldDem]

3. More thoughts from Oscar Romero

A true hero.

I belong to the Social Outreach Commission at my parish, which is charged with distributing the monthly Social Outreach collections to local, national, and international groups that apply for our assistance. It can sometimes be a daunting and rather thankless task. We begin each of our meetings with these thoughts from the Archbishop to help us keep our mission in perspective. I myself am involved in some community social work as well, and I often find myself thinking of these words as I work.

While it isn't exactly Advent- or Christmas-related, I hope it inspires and comforts you as well as we enter into another turbulent year.


Prayer of Archbishop Oscar Romero
(Text attributed to Archbishop Oscar Romero)

It helps now and then to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnficent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning. A step along the way. An opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future that is not our own.

"Glory be to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to God from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

[CBHagman]

4. That is something I just have to send myself and others.

Thanks so much for posting that! The sentiments are precisely what I need to hear right now, given all that's happened in 2004 and how easy it is to become discouraged.

When I was opening Christmas cards Friday, I read a message from a friend of mine who's Franciscan friar. He wished me a happy 2005, adding that it could hardly be worse than 2004. Then I opened a card from another friend, and it had, almost word for word, the same sentiment!

We need to be reminded that our efforts are part of the larger picture, not the end of it all. It's so easy to find people who will proclaim any cause doomed, a failure, out of style, etc. Romero's words help lift us out of ourselves.

So thanks again. :grouphug: