WHO DO WE SEE?

I discovered Oscar Romero quite by accident. He was a Savadoran. He was a priest. He became an archbishop who totally surprised those who elected him and thought they knew him. He became a martyr and the church finally decided to recognize him as a saint. He was speaking of the poor in his own country, but they are the poor in any country. Just change the job descriptions. 

A seven year old girl from Guatemala died in custody. I don't know all the details. He family came looking for life and found death. Hell they can find plenty of that in her own country. Especially if the family is Amerindian. 

Who do we see?

Each time we look upon the poor, on the farm workers who harvest the coffee, the sugarcane, or the cotton, or the farmer who joins the caravan of workers looking to earn their savings for the year…remember there is the face of Christ.

The face of Christ is among the sacks and baskets of the farm worker; the face of Christ is among those who are tortured and mistreated in the prisons; the face of Christ is dying of hunger in the children who have nothing to eat; the face of Christ is in the poor who ask the church for their voices to be heard. How can the church deny this request when it is Christ who is telling us to speak for Him?

…..A church that tries to keep itself pure and uncontaminated would not be a church of God’s service to people. The authentic church is one that does not mind conversing with prostitutes, publicans and sinners as Christ did-and with Marxists and those of various political movements in order to bring them salvation’s true message.

Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador martyred in 1980.

I’d love to get the chance to read this in the presence of our God fearing Republican candidates and that sorry excuse for a current occupant and ask them what they were doing to fulfill Romero’s words. Did this child belong to a gang? Was she a "terrorist?"