BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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Were
I to search for an appropriate adjective to describe this moment of apostolic
succession in the Archdiocese, I should have no hesitation in calling it paschal.
Christ's
Church has to be a Church of Easter —that is to say, a Church that is
born of Easter and exists to be a sign and instrument of Easter in the world
Jesus,
who brought about our redemption beneath the paschal sign, longed to live on,
in a paschal manner, in the life of the Church. The Church is the body of the
risen Christ. Through baptism all those who belong to her live out that paschal
tension, that passage from death to life, that crossing over that never ends
and is called conversion, the continual demand upon us to destroy whatever is
sin and to bring into being ever more powerfully all that is life, renewal,
holiness, justice.
In
other words, the Easter Christ remains and lives, in the Easter Church. One
cannot be part of this Church without being faithful to his manner of passing
from death to life, without a sincere movement of conversion and of fidelity to
the Lord.
Beloved
brothers, sisters, friends. We have together lived through a Lent that was a
Way of the Cross, and a Good Friday that has come to full flower in this bright
and hopeful hour of the Easter of resurrection. Those of us—bishops, priests,
religious, and laity—who are aware of what it means to be a Church, the
depository of all the energies working for the salvation of humanity in Christ,
also understand the challenges and the risks of these difficult times. The
major challenge arises from the hope placed in the Church by the world. Let us
be worthy of this hour. Let us know how to give reason for this hope by the
witness of unity, of communion, of Christian authenticity, and of apostolic
work. While carefully honoring the supremacy of the Church's religious mission
and of salvation in Jesus Christ, this apostolic work should also take into
account the human dimension of the gospel message, and the demands that the
religious and eternal spheres make upon history.
Our
divine Savior will not cheat us of our hope. Let us appeal to the Queen of
Peace, the heavenly patroness of our people, to intercede with him for us. May
the Mother of the Risen One defend our Church, the sacrament of Easter.
With
My Blessing.
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Oscar A. Romero
San
Salvador, Easter Sunday, April 10, 1977
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