This is what advent is.
Advent should admonish us to discover in each brother or sister that we greet,
in each friend whose hand we shake,
in each beggar who asks for bread,
in each worker who wants to use the right to join a union,
in each peasant who looks for work in the coffee groves,
the face of Christ.
Then it would not be possible to rob them,
to cheat them,
to deny them their rights.
They are Christ,
and whatever is done to them
Christ will take as done to himself.
This is what Advent is:
Christ living among us.
December 3, 1978
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador (1977-1980). He was murdered because he spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations and torture while he was celebrating the Eucharist in a Catholic hospital on March 24, 1980. He was proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis in Rome on October 14, 2018.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
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One response to “OSCAR ROMERO. Advent readings from a modern martyr.”
I remember the day. It broke my heart.