BEATIFICATION OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO,
MAY 23, 2015
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In the letter Pope Francis sent to the Archdiocese
of San Salvador for the beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Francis presented
Romero as a model of mercy, saying that the Salvadoran martyr “built
peace with the power of love”—citing Romero’s own words. “It is
to this that the Church in El Salvador, in America and in the entire world is
called to today: to be rich in mercy,
to become a leaven of reconciliation for society.”
[Update:] Addressing Salvadoran pilgrims, he stated it more explicitly: “with only a few weeks to go before the beginning of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Monsignor Romero’s example constitutes for his beloved nation a stimulus and renewed endeavor for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, announcing it in such a way that all people will know it, so that the merciful love of the Divine Savior invades the heart and history of its good people.”
[Update:] Addressing Salvadoran pilgrims, he stated it more explicitly: “with only a few weeks to go before the beginning of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Monsignor Romero’s example constitutes for his beloved nation a stimulus and renewed endeavor for the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, announcing it in such a way that all people will know it, so that the merciful love of the Divine Savior invades the heart and history of its good people.”
Francis’
presentation of Romero as one who was “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4) and Archbishop Romero’s
teachings on the subject of mercy lead us to propose Blessed Romero for the
Holy Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis.
In his letter on Romero, Pope Francis highlighted the actions Blessed Romero
took that reflect the virtue of mercy. “In
times of difficult coexistence,” said the Pontiff, “Archbishop Romero knew how to lead, defend and protect his flock,
remaining faithful to the Gospel and in communion with the entire Church.” He noted that Romero’s “ministry was distinguished by a special attention to the poorest and
most marginalized. And in the moment of his death, while celebrating the Holy
Sacrifice of Love and Reconciliation, he received the grace of fully
identifying with the One who gave his life for his sheep.”
Francis tells us that bishops must “follow” the Good
Shepherd “in imitation of Jesus who, in
emptying himself, saved us with his
mercy.” In his letter, Francis
declares that Romero meets this high standard of discipleship. The Pope calls the Salvadoran martyr, “a zealous bishop who, by loving God and
serving his brethren, became an image of Christ the Good Shepherd.” Romero emulates the Good Shepherd, who “being rich became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He gives up all expectations of safety and comfort to accompany his people. Romero models the Good Shepherd, who being flawless, humiliates himself by enduring a criminal’s death for our sakes (Philippians 2:8). He accepts danger, violence, criticism, rebuke and derision. The Salvadoran Church, in beatifying him, called him a “Martyr for Love.”
Blessed
Oscar Romero was
a Martyr
for Mercy, one who is apt to teach us much about Mercy in this Holy
Jubilee Year dedicated to the subject of Mercy.
In addition to modeling mercy by “fully
identifying with the One who gave his life for his sheep,” Blessed Romero
also preached masterfully on mercy. His
preaching is notable because it presents the complete picture of mercy: not
only forgiveness,
but also the more difficult elements of denunciation and a call
to conversion. In his beatification homily, Card. Angelo Amato applied to Romero
the words of St. Augustine: “Having to
preach, to admonish, to correct, to edify ... is a great weight, a serious
responsibility. It is a difficult task.”
Romero himself acknowledges this.
“No one finds it harder to speak
about the evils of his own people than I,” he said, “who have the pastoral duty of saying what is sin and what must not
prevail, by talking about the ways to walk: conversion, faith, mercy.” (June 11, 1978 Homily.)
Thus he
preached:
What is mercy? Mercy is the most complete expression of
love. Love is commitment, forgiveness, justice, and understanding other
people. Mercy is not the pride of the Pharisees who despised the poor and those
living on the margins of society, but the embrace of God, who though he was
rich, came into this world to seek out the poor and those who did not want to
sit down and eat with them. Mercy is goodness expressed in action and not
simply in words. Mercy… each one of you understands this because I believe we
have all performed some small act of mercy for others and above all, we have
all been the object of mercy. If God had not been merciful to us when we fell
into sin, where would we be? If God had not been merciful to us and forgiven us
before he died, where would we go? Perhaps in our relationships with other
people we have performed many acts of mercy or perhaps we have received great
mercy from others. Blessed are those who have performed many merciful acts.
This is what God desires!
The mission of the
Church is to proclaim the marvelous works of God’s mercy. This is her primary mission. But
together with this there is another dimension: to call people to faith, to
conversion and to mercy. And in the third place, to denounce sin that
separates humanity from this relationship with God, from this relationship of
faith and truth and mercy—to denounce all those realities that do not allow us
to dispose ourselves toward God’s coming.
(Id.) In fact, Blessed Oscar Romero’s preaching
stands side by side with the message Pope Francis wishes to give us for this
Holy Year of Mercy:
Pope Francis
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Blessed
Archbishop Romero
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“Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life. All of her
pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to
believers.”
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“The mission of the Church is to proclaim the marvelous works of God’s
mercy. This is her primary mission.”
-June
11, 1978 Homily.
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Mercy and Justice ...
“Mercy is not opposed to justice but rather expresses God’s way of
reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself,
convert, and believe.”
-M.V.,
21
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“God’s justice is impartial for God treats Popes, Kings and humble
Christians in the same way. The People of God implore God to be merciful
because no one is saved by their own merits ... rather one is saved by
trusting in the infinite mercy and merits of our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
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“The temptation, on the one hand, to focus exclusively on justice made
us forget that this is only the first, albeit necessary and indispensable
step. But the Church needs to go beyond and strive for a higher and more
important goal.”
-M.V.,
10
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“As far as possible, it is necessary to judge with the mind of the
Lord, who desires mercy more than justice.”
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A sign of God’s
omnipotence ...
“God’s mercy, rather than a sign of weakness, is the mark of his
omnipotence.”
-M.V.,
6
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“In a weak person, power becomes cruelty—a sense of inferiority is
carried to the level of brutishness. God has no sense of inferiority. God is
sovereign. God can do all, and so he judges even his felons, even his
sinners, with kindness and mercy. But this just and merciful God also
sanctions, because his mercy is not weakness.”
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The Ecumenism of Mercy...
“There is an aspect of mercy that goes beyond the confines of the
Church … I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will
foster an encounter with these religions and with other noble religious
traditions.”
-M.V.,
23
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“My sisters and brothers,
it will be a great surprise, for many good Samaritans, people who did not
believe in Christ, people who did not call themselves Catholic but people who
did not persecute the Church, will find themselves saved at the time of the
final judgment while many Christians will be cast aside because they did not
fulfill this commandment of love and mercy.”
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The Kairos of Mercy ...
“The time has come for the Church to take up the joyful call to mercy
once more. It is time to return to the basics and to bear the weaknesses and
struggles of our brothers and sisters.”
-M.V.,
10
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The Church should be “a house of the Lord’s mercy where sinners
will not find reproach or excommunication or harshness but rather kindness
and acceptance and the embrace of our Lord who calls them to repentance and
forgiveness.”
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“What a beautiful thing that the Church begins her daily prayer with
the words, ‘O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me’ (Ps
70:2)!”
-M.V.,
14
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“May we never cease to pray. May we lift up our hearts to God and ask
for his grace and his mercy.”
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Blessed
Romero preached a final, masterful lesson on mercy which synthesizes everything described above. At his last Sunday sermon the day before he
was martyred, Blessed Romero preached on the Gospel account of Christ and the
Adulterous Woman (John 8:1-11). “I can find no more beautiful figure of Jesus
restoring a person’s human dignity than that of the sinless Jesus who comes
face to face with the woman surprised in the act of adultery,” said Romero.
(March 23, 1980 Homily.)
“Look at Jesus’ attitude,”
Romero urges: “Strength but tenderness”—embrace
the sinner, reject the sin.
Despite
the woman’s sinfulness, Christ sees that “converting
the woman is better than stoning her; forgiving and saving her is better than
condemning her. The law has to be at the service of human dignity and not focused
on legal details that so often can trample people’s honor,” Romero adds. Inspired by this lesson, Romero goes on to
plead on behalf of the peasants, “whose
laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuously,” for the law in El
Salvador not to be applied with arbitrariness and harshness, but for the army
to “Stop the repression” of civilians,
even if it meant disobeying orders to do so.
Romero knew that saying this would put him in grave danger, but he was
inspired to make this appeal by the message of the Gospel. As a result of this final act of mercy,
Blessed Oscar Romero was martyred on the following day.
For
his Christian denunciations and calls to repentance, for his faithful preaching
on mercy, and for his selfless emulation of the Good Shepherd who guides and
protects his flock with his very own life, we propose Blessed Oscar Romero for
the Holy Year of Mercy. “Those who have Archbishop Romero as a friend
in the faith,” said Pope Francis in his letter for Blessed Romero’s
beatification, “who invoke him as
protector and intercessor [will] find
in him strength and courage to build the Kingdom of God, and to commit to a
more equitable and dignified social order,” premised on the virtue of
Mercy.
On
the Feast of Saint John Paul II, the Pope of Divine Mercy.
