Today is
Palm / Passion Sunday. From the gospels, we heard about the final
suffering and death of Jesus. Today also happens to be the 33rd
anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.
I brought
this icon to church and set it upright on the Communion Table as I preached.
Instead of
my own sermon, I preached Archbishop Romero's final homily: the one he was
preaching when he was gunned down in a hospital chapel on March 24, 1980... one
week to the day before I was born.
I have tears
in my eyes to think that I was able to bring his words to life again this
morning. One of the little old ladies at my church commented on her way
out that what he said is even more relevant today than when he first preached
it.
It is as the
good Archbishop himself said: "If they kill me, I shall rise again in the Salvadoran
people." Not only Salvadoran...
By some
amazing coincidence, the gospel text for Romero's last homily was John
12:23-26:
Jesus
replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the
ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it
produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while
anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal
life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant
also will be.
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