It is very easy to...
Illustration
Object:
It is very easy to be servants of the word without disturbing the world: a very
spiritualized word, a word without any commitment to history, a word that can sound in
any part of the world because it belongs to no part of the world. A word like that creates
no problems, starts no conflicts.
What starts conflicts and persecutions, what marks the genuine church, is the word that, burning like the word of the prophets, proclaims and accuses: proclaims to the people God's wonders to be believed and venerated, and accuses of sin those who oppose God's reign, so that they may tear that sin out of their hearts, out of their societies, out of their laws -- out of the structures that oppress, that imprison, that violate the rights of God and of humanity.
This is the hard service of the word.
(From a homily preached by Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador at the ordination of two priests, December 10, 1977. Romero was later assassinated by a right- wing death squad for speaking up for the poor.)
What starts conflicts and persecutions, what marks the genuine church, is the word that, burning like the word of the prophets, proclaims and accuses: proclaims to the people God's wonders to be believed and venerated, and accuses of sin those who oppose God's reign, so that they may tear that sin out of their hearts, out of their societies, out of their laws -- out of the structures that oppress, that imprison, that violate the rights of God and of humanity.
This is the hard service of the word.
(From a homily preached by Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador at the ordination of two priests, December 10, 1977. Romero was later assassinated by a right- wing death squad for speaking up for the poor.)
