Oscar Romero was a Roman Catholic bishop in San Salvador. He fought against poverty, terror, and assassinations which were undertaken by the government leaders and funded by the US.
He was a fierce advocate of the rights of all, especially the least, the lost and the last. He wrote, “Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ, will live like the grains of wheat that dies. It only apparently dies. If it were not to die, it would remain a solitary grain. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies. We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us.”
It bears repeating. Every effort to improve society is an effort that God blesses and God demands of us. His understanding of God’s demands give me a greater understanding and appreciation of the analogy of being a grain of wheat, the appointed and appropriate reading for commemorating Oscar Romero. When the wheat grain is planted, it stops being a wheat grain. It effectively dies to its previous state. Instead, it becomes a harvest, producing many more wheat grains. This is what working for justice, working for God’s kingdom sometimes feels like. We are asked to sacrifice our current state. We don’t know what will come of our efforts. But we know we are asked to do something. God blesses that work, and good things come.
Another of his themes was that people come and go, priests and bishops may be killed. But the church, the people of God remain. He said, “If some day they take the radio station away from us, if they close down our newspaper, if they don’t let us speak, if they kill all the priests and the bishop too, and you are left, a people without priests, each one of you must be God’s microphone, each one of you must be a messenger, a prophet. The church will always exist as long as there is one baptized person. And that one baptized person who is left in the world is responsible before the world for holding aloft the banner of the Lord’s truth and of his divine justice.”
From a clergy/lay perspective, I’ve always believed this. The church is not the church leaders. It’s the people. But in these weird pandemic times, I think we need to remind ourselves that the Church is not the building. It is the people. As long as there is one baptized person left in the world, that person is responsible for holding the banner of the Lord’s truth and divine justice. We are the church.
He preached a sermon calling for the peaceful resistance and disobedience of soldiers that violated human rights. He knew he was living dangerously, but for the Gospel. In that sermon he said, ”You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish.” The following day, he was shot to death while conducting a church service.
This morning, I’m thinking about being the Church. Our buildings may be shuttered, but now’s the time to remember the Church is not the building. We are the church. How, in the midst of this pandemic, can we be the church? While we can mourn the familiarity of our physical places, now we can be freed from that illusion that the building is Church. We are church. How are we going to respond? How are we going to work for God’s justice? Do we see that work as blessed by God? As demanded by God?
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