“Come and Follow me.” Mark 10:21
Today the Church, the People of God, rejoices for the canonization of the Holy Pope Paulo the Sixth and Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Saint of America. What happiness and what joy! Just two days ago I concelebrated with Pope Francis, the visible head of our Catholic Church and I prayed with the successor of Peter the Apostle for our Parish and for each one of you. We are all the Church!
At times when the shadows appear, there are accusations and the darkness of the night is seen for the sins of some of the children of the church. We have the consolation that the light of Christ surrounded by his saints also shines in the Church. Pope Paul the Sixth lived in a time of change and he himself impelled changes in a Church clinging to the past and was very misunderstood. In what some consider to be his spiritual testament, Paulo the Sixth wrote that "I wanted to be in the light just when everything was dark and night came." At 40 years of his death, the Church publicly recognizes his holiness of this Pope who loved to read and above all loved his people.
With Monsignor Romero, God passed through El Salvador. In his same words: "Always united with Peter," he died as a prophet and martyr of truth and justice. Again, Romero lived in a time of death, sadness and pain for his people. Far from departing from his people, he walked with the poor and recognized their same destiny until death. Again and again he did not stop showing, that as a pastor, he was willing to give his life for his people. Monsignor Romero always believed in the God of life even in the midst of death. As a prophet he anticipated to say that if he were killed, he would "be resurrected with his people." Today we have the consolation of his words; the Word of God encourages us to leave everything to win everything. Today we proclaim in his canonization the certainty that "The prophet never dies." Today his voice of justice does not cease, nor does history forgets those who knew how to give their lives so that others can live. With his Gospel and his voice at hand, it was the breath that defended the peasant and gave voice to those who had no voice.
Saint Romero of America, pray for your people!
Fr. Hernan, S.J.
"The martyrdom of Bishop Romero was not precise at the time of his death, it was a martyrdom-testimony, previous suffering, previous persecution, until his death. And later on, because once he was dead he was defamed, slandered, and soiled, that is, his martyrdom was continued even by his brothers in the priesthood and in the episcopate ... a man who remains a martyr. "(Pope Francis)