Lenten Martyr - Oscar Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was in 1917, in El Salvador in Central America. As a child, he could often be found at one of the town's two churches during his free time. Then in 1942, Romero was ordained a Roman Catholic priest while studying in Rome.

Romero worked as a parish priest in Anamorós but then moved to San Miguel where he worked for over 20 years. He promoted various apostolic groups, started an Alcoholics Anonymous group, helped in the construction of San Miguel's cathedral. He was later appointed Rector of the inter-diocese seminary in San Salvador and became the director of the archdiocesan newspaper, which became fairly conservative while he was editor. In 1970 he was appointed auxiliary bishop to San Salvador Archbishop Luis Chávez y González, a move not welcomed by the more progressive members of the Priesthood in El Salvador. He took up his appointment as Bishop of the Diocese of Santiago de María in December 1975. On 23 February 1977, he was appointed Archbishop of San Salvador. While this appointment was welcomed by the government, many priests were disappointed, especially those openly aligning with Marxism. The Marxist priests feared that his conservative reputation would negatively affect liberation theology's commitment to the poor.

Then, on 12 March, a progressive Jesuit priest and personal friend, Rutilio Grande, who had been creating self-reliance groups among the poor, was assassinated. His death had a profound impact on Romero who later stated, "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path'". Romero urged the government to investigate, but they ignored his request, and the censored press remained silent.

In response to Fr. Rutilio's murder, Romero revealed a radicalism that had not been evident earlier. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture. As a result, Romero began to be noticed internationally. In 1979, an even more oppressive government came to power amid a wave of human rights abuses by paramilitary right-wing groups and the government. In February 1980, Romero was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of Leuven. On this visit to Europe to receive this honor, he met Pope John Paul II and expressed his concerns at what was happening in his country. Romero argued that it was problematic to support the Salvadoran government because it legitimized terror and assassinations. He also wrote to President Jimmy Carter in February 1980, warning that increased US military aid would "undoubtedly sharpen the injustice and the repression inflicted on the organized people, whose struggle has often been for their most basic human rights".

Oscar Romero reported to others “ In less than three years, more than fifty priests have been attacked, threatened and slandered. Six of them are martyrs, having been assassinated; various others have been tortured, and others expelled from the country. Religious women have also been the object of persecution. The archdiocesan radio station, Catholic educational institutions and Christian religious institutions have been constantly attacked, menaced, threatened with bombs. Various parish convents have been sacked.”

In mid-March 1980, Romero stated in a sermon on the parable of the wheat. "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". "I am bound, as a pastor, by divine command to give my life for those whom I love, and that is all Salvadoreans, even those who are going to kill me."

Then on March 23, 1980, Archbishop Romero made the following appeal to the men of the armed forces: "Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination. ...In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression"

The next day, Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia". According to an audio-recording of the Mass, he was shot while elevating the chalice at the end of the Eucharistic rite. When he was shot, his blood spilled over the altar along with the contents of the chalice.

In 1998, a Gallery of 20th century martyrs dedicated at London’s Westminster Abbey, including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , Archbishop Óscar Romero, and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
On 24 March 2010—the thirtieth anniversary of Romero's death—Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes offered an official state apology for Romero's assassination. Speaking before Romero's family, representatives of the Catholic Church, diplomats, and government officials, Funes said those involved in the assassination "…unfortunately acted with the protection, collaboration or participation of state agents".

Most recently, on 22 March 2011 Barack Obama, during an official visit to El Salvador (his last stop on a Latin-American tour), went to visit Romero's resting place.

Romero's words -- a selection:

We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways. --Archbishop Oscar Romero, December 24, 1979

" A church that suffers no persecution but enjoys the privileges and support of the things of the earth - beware! - is not the true church of Jesus Christ. A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospel's call." (1/22/78)

"When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises." (8/6/78). -- The Church: Called to Repentance, Called to Prophecy

I must tell you, as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If I am killed, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people.’

A Rather Quiet Sesquicentennial April 12 (1861-2011)

On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, in command of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson refused.

On April 12,1861, Confederate batteries in Charleston opened fire on the fort, which was unable to reply effectively. At 2:30 pm, April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the American Civil War.

Check out the Fort today.
I was alive when the Centennial of the Civil War was marked and remember bits of it. Certainly the attention today is much, much less than the 1960's. That may be because the issues of the days are dramatically different. In some ways, the Civil War was being replayed then in the Civil Rights struggle of the time.

But for an event that totally reshaped the country's future -- slave/free, agriculture/industry, independent landowner-capitalists /corporate capitalists -- the tone is much more muted today. Perhaps we assume the issues are all settled and certainly Civil Rights are more secure now, but the political philosophies that shaped the conflict are still about to some degree. The "South" is once more an economic force to be reckoned with and has reshaped politics in the last 50 years.

I will be interested to see if more discussions emerge over the next four years as we try to remember and forget the war to caused the most military deaths in this country's history, as well as reconfigured our national future. Plus, will there be an appeal to the Divine that was so prevalent 150 years ago?

Horton Foote - a Texas Writer of note!

In the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, there is a several week celebration of the Texas-born write, Horton Foote. For information on the festival, go here.

Famous as a screenwriter -- "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Tender Mercies" perhaps best-known, he is a prolific writer of plays as well. My wife Sylvia and I have enjoyed his work for some time, and find in it a particular echo of the life along the Coastal Bend of Texas. (He being from Wharton, we having lived in the Victoria area long enough for both of our children to be born there.)

This Spring, we have seen three plays so far: "Talking Pictures," "Dividing the Estate," and "The Traveling Lady," and have a few more scheduled.
We also are re-watching some of his films: "Tender Mercies" last week and "1918" last night (in which you can see a very young Matthew Broderick act the heck out of a relatively small role).

There are no car-chases or space-battles, but his works are nice tales of life's challenges to everyday folks, and the crises they find themselves in because of forces often beyond their control -- addiction, cycles of abuse, war, disease, technological change, and just living with other people.

A couple of observations:
1) He often has single mothers as major characters. That is not the normal view of households in the time periods he most often writes of. It is interesting to see the unique challenges such women faced in the society of their times -- especially since I am the child of a most-of-the-time single mother.
2) Religion plays both as almost constant background and in a vital role in his works -- people expect folks to be in church on Sunday, hymns are in the air and in the minds of folks all week, God intervenes in the day-to-day in weal and woe and people interact in thanks and complaint, neighbors share their opinions but also reflect on the biblical witness and church teachings.
Maybe I miss that tone to life, as it too permeated at least my earliest life in Texas.

Don't get me wrong, I like car-chases and space-battles in my movies; I appreciate the technological changes in life for the most part, but every now and then I enjoy a return to another time -- and Horton Foote is a good writer to take you there.

Lenten Martyr - Martin Luther King, Jr.

A familiar face in the American story, often more associated with his January birthday / holiday or the February Black History Month coverage, King comes to us this week as a Lenten martyr as he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
He grew up in the segregated South of Atlanta -- he even sang with his Sunday School class for the Atlanta premiere of "Gone with the Wind"! Like his father and grandfather, King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, but then he headed North to Crozer Seminary in Pennsylvania and graduate study in Boston (where he met Coretta Scott, his soon-to-be-bride). His grandfather and father both served at Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta and he joined the staff 1960-1968, but he is more famous for his first call in 1954 to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery and his leadership in the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott. He became a recognized face in the Civil Rights movement, becoming the youngest recipient (age 35) of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964; he then witnessed passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. His attention then turned to anti-war efforts and an anti-poverty campaign as well.
He was in Memphis, Tennessee, for challenges to the treatment of garbage workers, when he gave his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" address, concluding: “We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
The following evening, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, he was assassinated.

King's "Mountain Top" speech is a stirring personal moment, yet he is probably best know n for his 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," addressed to clergy in America, but addressed, I believe, to all well-meaning people in America.
Just a sampling:

"I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their 'thus saith the Lord' far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."

"You may well ask: 'Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?' … Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. … The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. ...

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. ... For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'"

"... In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: 'Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.' And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
... But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

[My note: That last bit is a chilling word for a church which indeed finds itself in decline in America in the early 21st century!]

Thanks latter-day Brother Martin!

"Win Win" -- some advice from and for those who wrestle

Win Win showcases some marvelous acting (Paul Giamatti, once again the shlub everyman, but the leads are all marvelous) and a quiet but so moving story.
I thought the tolerance of foul language between coaches and student-athletes was probably not realistic, even in the public schools of today, as the "coach" still is the model for the growing young persons. OK, but that is REALLY minor compared to the wonderful moral tale that unfolds and enfolds the characters.

As a person of faith, I found the young wrestler's explanation of his strategy so telling. One imagines that the opponent is drowning them, and then the wrestler must fight as hard as possible to get free.
Great wrestlers of the Bible -- Jacob at the Jabbok, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (metaphorical) -- wrestled as much with God as the situation which they faced. They wrestled, were injured, and emerged victorious.
We too tackle life's challenges -- and we can capitulate, accept, ignore, reject, or fight with God, evil, the powers that be, not be surprised by injury, and God-willing emerge victorious. I think that is God's promise.

I think that is the message of Win Win.

April: Intellectual Wellness - II

We use many thinking or intellectual terms in expressing the Christian faith. One of the earliest songs many children learn is “Jesus Loves Me This I Know.” On Sunday mornings, we state “I believe” when it comes time to “Confess” our faith. Although many seem to think that “faith” is the opposite of knowing, intellectual life is a vital part of the Christian Faith. Who became the provider of education as European civilization crumbled after the Romans? The Church. What group founded most of the Universities in Europe and many in the United States? The Church.

Intellectual wellness, therefore, embraces the faith, builds on the faith, and explores the connections to the world which faith offers. We are not a people who must check our brain at the door when we enter the church, whether for Bible and Topic Studies, Volunteering, or Sunday Worship. God created us to be thinking and feeling people, folks who embraced this world which God created, persons equipped with intellectual abilities. (Is this what makes us just less than angels in God’s eyes?)
Yes, we have our human beginnings story in Genesis 3, acknowledging limits to our intellectual pursuits. But I read that not as rejection of the intellectual life, but as a warning about sin, against the desire to be god. Genesis 3 seems, in fact, to offer humans so much to explore and know in the world (the multitude of trees given) with a nod of recognition that trouble comes, sin comes, all the good sours, when we try to exchange the bounty of blessing for isolated independence, for intellect as "god-enough." Instead we are invited to use our God-given gifts and abilities to embrace this world, to know this world, and to understand our part in this world.

I encourage you into enter the biblical story through your mind: read, study, discuss, and share with others. May this intellectual pursuit deepen the gift of faith God gives. Notice the way the Gospel of John closes chapter 20: “But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Think about it!