25th anniversary of assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero
1917-1980

25 years ago today, Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down while saying mass. The wealthy and powerful forces of the ultra-right in El Salvador had murdered this man of God who dared to speak truth to power and who decried the evil committed against the poor people of El Salvador with a voice of love.

From one of Romero's last sermons:

If we could see that Christ is the needy one,
the torture victim,
the prisoner,
the murder victim,
and in each human figure
so shamefully thrown by our roadsides
could see Christ himself cast aside,
we would pick him up like a medal of gold
to be kissed lovingly.
We would never be ashamed of him.

How far people are today –
especially those who torture and kill
and value their investments more than human beings –
from realizing that all the earth’s millions
are good for nothing,
are worthless, compared to a human being.

The person is Christ,
and in the person viewed and treated with faith
we look on Christ the Lord.
MARCH 16, 1980

Taken from the book, The Violence of Love, available for free download from the Bruderhof Communities.