OSCAR ROMERO A NEW SAINT FOR PROGRESSIVES

LEADER  of Liberation Theology Canonized by Pope Francis

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Oscar Romero Archbishop of El Salvador was killed while he celebrated the Mass  by an  American supported  anti-revolutionary faction.

Here are some  thoughts that Saint Oscar shared in a sermon :

The shepherd must be where the suffering is. [1]

My soul is sore when I learn how our people are tortured, when I learn how the rights of those created in the image of God are violated.  [2]

SEE  how Saint Oscar connects the spiritual and the political:

A Gospel that doesn’t take into account the rights of human beings, a Christianity that doesn’t make a positive contribution to the history of the world, is not the authentic doctrine of Christ, but rather simply an instrument of power.

We . . . don’t want to be a plaything of the worldly powers, rather we want to be the Church that carries the authentic, courageous Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, even when it might become necessary to die like he did, on a cross.

THE GOSPELS  show us what to do with our pain, with the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust and the undeserved—all of which eventually come into every lifetime.

 If only we could see these “wounds” as the way through, as Jesus did, then they would become sacred wounds rather than scars to deny, disguise, or project onto others. I am sorry to admit that I first see my wounds as an obstacle more than a gift.

" Healing is a long journey." as Franciscan Richard Rohr observes "If we cannot find a way to make our wounds into sacred wounds, we invariably become cynical, negative, or bitter. This is the storyline of many of the greatest novels, myths, and stories of every culture. If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it—usually to those closest to us: our family, our neighbors, our co-workers, and, invariably, the most vulnerable, our children."

Scapegoating, exporting our unresolved hurt, is the most common storyline of human history. The Jesus Story is about radically transforming history and individuals so that we don’t just keep handing on the pain to the next generation. Unless we can find a meaning for human suffering, that God is somehow in it and can also use it for good, humanity is in major trouble. Because we will suffer. Even the Buddha said that suffering is part of the deal!

Here is one of Saint Oscars  brief meditations

A Future Not Our Own

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession
brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.

This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one
day will grow. We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects
far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's
grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the
difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not
messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

From Xavarian Missionaries:

Oscar A. Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, in El Salvador, was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a small chapel in a cancer hospital where he lived. He had always been close to his people,

I have read that  short meditation  over a few times. At first I did not see its power. But I did see that reading it calmed me in some way. That calmness pulled me back to re-read it. 
 It reminded  me of when I would be teaching a play and  in class we would be discussing it, suddenly at a certain point I would feel a new understanding sweep over me.
 Later I would re-read that section and try to find what I had  found in the moment of  class-room explication and illumination.
It is an elusive thing -- insight.
I think that the big  idea is that we are part of something larger than us.  That we are building, but we don't know what the final structure will be. But we are part and a necessary part of making it. We are WORKERS not MASTER-Builders.

When you read it over, where do you pause, where do you hear the faint promptings of GRACE?

It makes me think of that  spiritual that Elvis and BB King often sang.
I'm working on the building
It's a true foundation
I'm lifting up a bloodstained
Banner for the Lord

I'll have a good time
Working on the building
I'm going to heaven
To get my reward