The following three quotes from Oscar Romero’s sermons are from The Scandal of Redemption, this week’s featured book (ebook free for subscribers). The third was spoken the day before his assassination.
The person who denounces must be willing to be denounced. From the beginning I’ve said that I gladly accept criticisms when they are constructive and try to make me better than the poor soul I am. Most especially, I ask forgiveness from all those for whom my message has been misunderstood or poorly communicated. I want you to know that there is no pride or ill will in what I say; neither is there any distortion of what the gospel is ordering me to preach to this archdiocese that has been commended to my care.
The true pastor experiences this need for conversion, and he preaches it as a personal necessity for himself and for all those who want to join him in forming the authentic church of Jesus Christ. The need for conversion has been the center of the church’s message about the Word of God since Christ appeared in history. It was the message of the prophets who announced him, and it was the message of ecclesial assemblies, such as the one we just experienced in Puebla. The message of the church and the attitude of genuine pastors cannot be any different. We are not God. We are fragile, limited human beings, and we need to be converted. Believe me, sisters and brothers, when I tell you that I would like to be at the head of this whole procession of conversion that our diocese is undertaking.
Conversion is something like making an about-face. In the military the terms “right face” or “about face” are used for turning troops to one side or the other. Conversion means turning toward God and becoming ever more directed toward God. Christ was talking about conversion when he said, “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). When will we be perfect like God? Christ’s purpose is to inspire a movement without limits, which is conversion. Conversion means asking at every moment: what does God want of my life? If God wants the opposite of what I might fancy, then doing what God wants is conversion, and following my own desire is perversion. What does God want, for example, of the political power in a country? He wants those forces to create sound laws and moral unity of will among all citizens for the common good. God does not want that power to be used to assault and to beat people or to attack cities and villages; that is perversion. What does God want of capital and of those to whom he gives money, properties, and other things? Again God seeks conversion. That means that people should bestow on the things created by God the destiny God ordains for them, which is the welfare of all, so that everyone might have a share in happiness.
Photograph by Marcus Lange / Unsplash.
First of all, there is an urgent need to save the dignity of persons. I can find no more beautiful example of saving human dignity than the figure of the sinless Jesus face to face with the adulterous woman who was surprised in the act and humiliated. Those who caught her want to sentence her to stoning. Without saying a word Jesus reproaches those who would judge her with their own sins, and then he asks the woman, “Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir.” “Then neither do I condemn you. But sin no more” (John 8:10–11). Strength, but tenderness. Human dignity comes first….
Personal sin is at the base of the great social sin. We must keep this in mind, because today it is very easy for us to be like those who witnessed the adultery: we point it out and demand justice, but we look very little into our own consciences. How easy we find it to condemn structural injustice, institutional violence, and social sin! All that is quite real, but where are the sources of that social sin? They are in the heart of every person. Modern-day society is an anonymous society in which nobody accepts blame but everybody is responsible. All of us are responsible for what happens, but the sin remains anonymous. We are all sinners, and we have all contributed our grain of sand to this mountain of crimes and violence in our country.
That is why salvation begins with the human person, with human dignity, with freeing every individual from sin. This is God’s call: let each and every one be converted! Among all of us who are here, there are not two sinners who are the same. Each of us has committed our own shameful deeds, but we want to hide them and shift the blame to others. I also am a sinner and must take off my mask. I have offended God and society, and I must ask forgiveness of God. This is the call of Christ: the human person comes first.