Remembering Romero

By Simon Barrow

March 21, 2008

Easter Monday marks the 28th anniversary of the murder of Monseñor Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, in El Salvador - killed for defending the poor in the name of Christ.

Romero once said, not long before his death: "As a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me I will rise again in the people of El Salvador."

In the new Jesuit online journal Thinking Faith, Rodolfo Cardenal SJ writes about the legacy of Archbishop Romero – very much alive in the church and the world today. http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20080320_1.htm

See also Romero's extraordinary prayer/poem, 'Prophets of a future not our own':

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

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
the magnificent 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 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 God'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 not our own.