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JUBILEE YEAR for the CENTENNIAL of BLESSED
ROMERO, 2016 — 2017
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We
remember the XLI anniversary of the martyrdom of Fr. Rutilio Grande, quoting an
excerpt from the pastoral letter of His Excellency, the Most Reverend Jose Luis
Escobar Alas, Archbishop of San Salvador, «Ustedes también Darán Testimonio—Porque han estado conmigo desde el principio» (“You will also testify—Because you have been with me from the beginning”) (2017). [See also: Status of the Cause.]
The passion of Father Rutilio began
years before his martyrdom; and even before his arrival in El Paisnal. In trying
to do God’s will, he found incomprehension and rejection along his path. His
homilies were considered highly dangerous. In the opinion of his murderers, they
subverted the order—which is to say, the social, political and economic order
that they had built around them to defend their class interests. The truth is
that they had ears but they did not hear; and eyes but they did not see. They
did not understand that their discomfort was caused by the divine Word that
Father Rutilio preached. It was a Word that challenged their unjust, selfish
and violent behavior towards the poorest of this country; he challenged the
lack of coherence between their faith and their lives;
He questioned their attitude of covering
up the truth with lies and impunity; he questioned their eager work for
personal gain, disrgarding the common good of the nation; he challenged their
ultimate fate in the eyes of God. They felt threatened by the words of the
Gospel. The protomartyr ended up being accused like Jesus before Pilate: he
stirred up the people with his teachings throughout Judea, from Galilee, where
he started until now (Lk 23, 5). His assassins would likely have said in front
of the Salvadoran Pilate: Father Rutilio S.J., provokes the people with his
homilies all over El Paisnal, from San Salvador, where he began, even to Apopa.
In San Salvador, where it all began, he
delivered the first of those homilies that would launch his passion. On August
6, 1970, on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Transfiguration of the Lord in
the cathedral and in a context of vacillating agrarian reform, Father Rutilio,
after presenting Jesus Christ as mediator before God; Word of God made flesh;
and our deliverer, he concluded by encouraging the bishops and rulers of the
nation to “see with the eyes of Christ.”
With firm political will and with the guidance of the Church, their reality could
be transformed: The Church within its sphere and the Government in its own,
with mutual respect within their respective spheres, must collaborate
effectively, boldly and urgently in order to foster “just, honest and expedient laws,”
as required by the sovereignty of the people in article 1 of the constitution. Who
was that sovereign people? The great majority or the small minority? Which of
the two were really alienated in the nation? The Church and the government must
collaborate effectively, boldly and urgently to transfigure the Salvadoran
people living in the valleys, next to the beautiful lakes, next to the Lempa River,
on the edge of the coffee and sugarcane plantations, on the slopes of mountains
and volcanoes, in the villages and hamlets and in the large and explosive urban
concentrations and next to the large land tenancies ... and only then, Christ
the Transfigured Savior, would really be the country’s Patron, since all of the
baptized would be transfigured in his name, for having been faithful to the
mandate of the Father, as proclaimed in the Gospel: ‘This is my beloved Son, listen to him and fulfill his message.’
His homily did not please Cain. It only
managed to raise suspicions and resentments. How much he would have suffered,
sisters and brothers, when he saw that his message had been misunderstood. A
message prepared for the sake of improving the living conditions of a people
struggling between misery and lack of freedom was used against them without taking
note of its high evangelical sense. It did not matter that he explained it in
various ways. It was always distorted. A clear example of this is his homily on
the Good Samaritan, delivered in Aguilares on Sunday, September 16, 1973 for Independence
Day, Interpreting the Lucan passage, like Jesus, by using a figure who was “marginalized
and despicable” from the civil-political perspective; and contrary to God from
the religious point of view. A man who was known as a “communist” in the region
happened to pass through the Troncal district and when he saw the victim, was
moved to compassion. Then he approached the man, healed his wounds as best he
could and bandaged him. Then he put him in his own car, took him to an
accommodation and took care of him. The next day, when the “communist” left, he
took some money and gave it to the owner of the accommodation and said: “Take
care of this man, and if you spend more, I will pay you when I return.” Well,
which of these characters do you think was the good neighbor of the man who was
assaulted by the thieves? The Salvadoran cleric preached: he who had compassion
for him. Jesus says: You must go and do the same.
The interpretation is creative and incarnated
in the convulsive situation of the country during those years. However, it is
very likely that not everyone approved of it—above all, the indoctrinated who idolized
their organization or political party. The lesson that Father Rutilio gave them
was clear: Politics is not for personal benefit. It is to promote the common
good of the Salvadoran people, burdened in misery, injustice, persecution and forced
ignorance. Father Rutilio, in applying the parable to Salvadoran reality, did
not see a single wounded man. The wounded was the whole country: The people
were left behind, lying on the road, dying and without a voice. Let’s stop
talking about the people and really demonstrate with facts that we have love
for God and the people, since that is having faith in God and in his image, man.
He loved the people, he wanted the best. He had understood that mercy is like
Saint Gregory of Nice explains to us a pain or voluntary suffering one takes up
for the ills of others. Not to give them condolences or offer some minor
assistance that calms our conscience. Mercy is transformative action; the
opposite is inaction, silence and; perhaps, conformism that lacerates human
dignity preventing its development: If compassion does not soften the soul to
help our neighbor, then no one will take a step to alleviate the misfortune of another.
Father Rutilio wanted to show that the good Samaritan was not satisfied with
approaching the wounded. He picked him up, carried him, took him to a safe
place, giving him back the possibility of recovering his health, and with it,
life itself.
His compassion did not stop at anything.
In Apopa, on February 13, 1977, he delivered a homily in solidarity with Father
Bernal who had just been expelled from the country, explaining that it was not
a rally, much less a violent march. It was a manifestation of faith in which he
knowingly spoke of the martyrial seal of the Salvadoran Church living its aggiornamento and of the love that
characterized it: The symbol of a shared table, with the stool for everyone and
with long, festive tablecloths for all. The symbol of Creation, which also
requires redemption, sealed with martyrdom! ... We did not come here with
machetes. This is not our force. Our force is in the Word of God, which works
violence on us and works violence on society and which unites us and brings us
together, even if they club up. Therefore, the code is summarized, in one word:
Love: against the Anti-Love, against sin, against injustice, against domination,
against the destruction of fraternity.
My sisters and brothers, in these
homilies we discover a Rutilio fully identified with Jesus: He saw with the
eyes of Christ; judged reality in light of the Word, Tradition and Magisterium;
and, he acted as Christ would have done; that is, with mercy, announcing the
Good News and denouncing sin. A seeing, judging and acting that led him to
suffer misunderstandings, intolerances, accusations, ridicule, and the persecution
of spies, among other things. This was a suffering of which he was always
aware: It is dangerous to be a Christian in our country. It is practically
illegal to be a Christian in our midst! Why? Because we are based on an
established order before which the mere proclamation of the Gospel is
subversive. How is it not going to sting them when we discover their evil? He
knew that his passion in Los Olivos had an objective: Assassination, which we,
grateful for his testimony, call today: a martyr’s death.
Approximately at five o’clock in the afternoon
of March 12, 1977, came his death by cross. He was not alone. Two other martyrs
died along with him: seventy-two year old Manuel Solorzano, and Nelson Rutilio
Lemus, fifteen. Father Rutilio went to celebrate the Eucharist and to continue
the novena to St. Joseph, in El Paisnal. He never arrived. On the way they were
ambushed and their car brutally machine-gunned as if he were a criminal. Father
Rodolfo Cardenal S.J. relates in the biography of Father Rutilio that shortly
before his death, he said in a low voice: We must do what God wants. Yes, my
sisters and brothers, like Jesus in the garden of Olives, when obedient to
death he exclaimed: Do not do my will but yours (Lk 22, 42). It is not that God’s
will was to see Father Rutilio die in a macabre way, much less his Son. To do
his will implies in this case to be faithful to the mission entrusted even when
this entails the possibility of dying in its fulfillment. It is sin that kills,
it is what killed this holy priest, our beloved protomartyr; and it was sin
that killed Jesus on the cross. He had forgiven his murderers some time before
he died: Hate does not fit in a Christian heart. Even if they beat us and take
our lives, we have to continue loving and forgiving. That’s what Jesus taught
us, right? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!
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