Everything Could Be a Prayer: Oscar Romero
From Everything Could Be a Prayer by Kreg Yingst
When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
-Mark 10:14
Oscar Romero's life took a turn when his friend and fellow priest Rutilio Grande was murdered. After that event, Romero became an indignant, outspoken critic of the military government of El Salvador and an advocate for the marginalized and impoverished. He became the archbishop of San Salvador. He also became a target when he started calling out Christians whose allegiance to their country and government superseded their loyalty to God.
Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, Romero sought to lead in the ways of Christ: peaceful work combined with righteous indignation. Romero stated, "We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us."
The way of the martyred Christ and of the cross would also be Romero's way. On March 24, 1980, while standing in front of the chapel altar at the Hospital de la Divina Providencia, having just given mass, Romero was gunned down. The shooter had stepped outside the passenger side of a car and fired through the open chapel door.
Romero's body lay at the feet of the statue of the crucified Christ just behind him. No one was convicted of Romero's murder, but a UN commission concluded that a Salvadoran politician and death squad leader had ordered it.
Romero's life, death, and solidarity with the poor echo that same voice of love that spoke from the cross. "Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all, to the good of all," Romero says, guiding us still today. "Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty."
Prayer
Consuming Fire, make me an instrument of peace, to ease the burdens of others when I'm able, to do my small part. Amen.
