Following is a homily by Deacon Marian Pawliszko delivered at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, Newmarket, on 5th Sunday of Lent, 2021
On Wednesday, March 24, the Church will remember the anniversary of the assassination of recently canonized St. Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of El Salvador. Oscar Romero is probably known to many of you. He was murdered by government agents while presiding over mass in the hospital chapel on the 24th of March 1980.
Voice of the voiceless poor
Archbishop Romero had used his position to speak up against all kinds of social injustices. He was the “voice of the voiceless poor.” He was denounced by the government and their allies as a political agitator and received constant death threats. But this never discouraged him from preaching against the social injustices that plagued his nation during the civil unrest.
In his homilies he spoke against violence and repression, and all kinds of discrimination based on the exploitation of the poor.
He said that “preaching that does not denounce evil is not preaching the gospel… Preaching that awakens, preaching that illuminates, it can be compared to a light that comes on when people are asleep, naturally it will bother them. This is the preaching of Christ”. (Preached on January 22nd 1978)
At the mass in which he died, the gospel reading had been from the Gospel of John 12:23-26: “The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified…unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit…” In the short preaching that would be his final homily, Archbishop Romero said: ‘You have just heard in the gospel of Christ that one must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and that those who try to fend off the danger will lose their lives. But whoever out of love for Christ gives himself to the service of others will live, like the grain of wheat that dies…only in undoing itself does it produce the harvest. Seconds after finishing his homily, a single shot rang out, fired from the back of the chapel which hit Romero in the chest. He was rushed to hospital but died in the emergency room shortly afterwards. The year before, he had said prophetically: ‘Christ is saying to each one of us: if you want your life and mission to be fruitful like mine, do as I have: be converted into grain that is buried. Let yourself be killed; do not be afraid. The one who avoids suffering will end up alone. There is no one more alone than selfish people. But if, out of love for others, you give your life for others, like I am going to give mine, you will have an abundant harvest; you will experience the deepest satisfaction.’ (Preached on April 1st, 1979)
Today's Gospel Reading [Jn. 12:20-33] reaffirms what has just been said. In a parable, Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies; it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also."
Preferential option for the poor
To follow Jesus these days is not always easy. Many Christians in the Middle East and in all over the world are still unjustly persecuted today. There are still people who are preoccupying their worldly minds with wealth, violating the dignity of human life, not focusing on the preferential option for the poor, not to mention their ignorance towards the gospel values.
For three years Oscar Romero served as Archbishop, but his legacy is eternal, because it teaches us to build the beautiful structure of God’s Kingdom, that creates conditions of kindness, of trust, of freedom, of peace and of love even if we only accomplish a small fraction of God’s work in our lifetime.
Let us imitate Archbishop Romero’s courageous example as our model and guide to follow - and let us be mindful and stand up for social justice, always protecting and supporting those who are poor and marginalized in our society. As we approach the final two weeks of our Lenten journey let us deeply reflect on seeing God in the poor and being Jesus’ disciples in this world.