Remembering Oscar Romero

I was just reading the blog of fellow community developer and advocate for the poor, Larry James from Central Dallas Ministries. We both participated in a special service commemorating the life and anniversary of the death (murder) of this amazing Catholic Archbishop in El Salvador.

I lifted this one quote from Larry's entry about this man after the event...

Romero once said, "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" (March 11, 1979).

I'll include the link later if you want to read more. For me, an amazing insight I learned about Romero from the message delivered by Dr. Harold Racinos (great brother) at SMU, was the fact that when Oscar Romero was elected Archbishop, he seemed to be a 'safe' choice, as he had no track record of standing up for the rights of the poor and the oppressed.

After taking office, and seeing the needs of his poor, oppressed parishioners, his heart was stirred and he became a fiery advocate for justice and spoke boldly against government abuse and against US intervention. One way that he intentionally maintained connection to the grass roots was to forego the customary limo that was available to him as a top religious leader, and chose instead to get around by bus/public transportation (what identification with the people!).

This has challenged me to realize that even though I and others may have slept through many crisis' that the poor of our world are facing, it is still not impossible that I/we may still be awakened to do something great (of ultimate service and sacrifice).

Martyred for his activism, Romero's life is a great inspiration to me.

http://larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com/