Love One Another

The synod’s finance committee recently met to work on the 2013 budget, which must be presented to the Synod Assembly in June.  Bishop Wollersheim led devotions to open the meeting and included a prayer of Bishop Oscar Romero.  At the time of his death, Romero was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador.  We were meeting on the 32^nd anniversary of Romero’s death, March 24, which made Bishop Wollersheim’s thoughts and Romero’s prayer all the more significant.

Romero was murdered at the altar while celebrating the Eucharist in 1980.  He had been fighting for the freedom of the Church in El Salvador and the rights of the poor.  I was in seminary at the time and recall him becoming the topic of conversation.  Liberation theology was a hot topic too.

In my early years of parish ministry, Oscar Romero was quoted often in sermons.  But, until our recent finance committee meeting, it had been quite a while since I had given him much serious thought.  I came home and did a little reading and added “Romero” to our DVD queue.

It was so interesting to watch “Romero” during this Holy Week.  This week we hear Jesus command us to love one another.  We participate in foot washing that symbolizes servanthood.  We hear Jesus’ dying words. We pray for the church throughout the world, Christians in other churches, the Jewish people, those who don’t share our faith, and those who do not believe in God.  We reverence the cross.  The film depicted the life of a servant of God, an imperfect human being, who was assassinated for loving others.

Consider Romero’s words:  We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for peaceful work.  (From The Violence of Love by Oscar Romero, which I found as a free download.)

In this week, when we focus our attention on Jesus and the incomprehensible sacrifice he made for us, it is good to be reminded of the sacrifice others, such as Oscar Romero, have made in Jesus’ name.  May God use us to change the world in the name of our Savior.

On behalf of Bishop Gary Wollersheim and your synod staff, I wish you a blessed Easter.

Comments are always welcome either on the blog website (http://niselca.blogspot.com) or on Facebook.  --JC