Oscar Romero (August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980)
“Let us not tire of preaching love;
it is the force that will overcome the world.
Let us not tire of preaching love.
Though we see that waves of violence
succeed in drowning the fire of Christian love,
love must win out; it is the only thing that can.”
“The church is calling to sanity,
to understanding,
to love.
It does not believe in violent solutions.
The church believes in only one violence,
that of Christ,
who was nailed to the cross.
That is how today’s gospel reading shows him,
taking upon himself all the violence
of hatred and misunderstanding,
so that we humans might forgive one another,
love one another,
feel ourselves brothers and sisters.”
“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 work.”
“Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all
to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty.
In it each one has a place in this beautiful family,
which the Epiphany brightens for us with God’s light.”
“Even when they call us mad,
when they call us subversives and communists
and all the epithets they put on us,
we know that we only preach
the subversive witness of the Beatitudes,
which have turned everything upside down
to proclaim blessed the poor,
blessed the thirsting for justice,
blessed the suffering.”
~ image from the book Everything Could Be a Prayer: Oscar Romero; painted block print, watercolor & ink on Rives; 6”x4”; Kreg Yingst
