R.I.P. ArchBishop Romero

Today happens to be the anniversary of Oscar Romero's death. For those of you who have never heard of him here is a little background info. As the Archbishop of San Salvador during El Salvador's brutal civil war, Romero became the "bishop of the poor" for his work defending the Salvadoran people. After calling for international intervention to protect those being killed by government forces, Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980. He is now in the process of beatification right now...

Below I pasted in Oscar Romero's prayer... I put the lines that really made me think in bold. The one line that really made me think is the one which says, "We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.We lay foundations that will need further development." It made me think about how no matter how much we want to help out the next generation live a better life, there will always be more work to do... We will never be able to fully complete something in our lifetime. Instead we work on it as much as possible until we have to pass it on to someone else to take care of....

Maybe this prayer will make some of you reflect about things as well. It is a good prayer for that.

The Prayer of Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expressed our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.

This is what we are about. We plant the seed that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen