The great need today is for Christians who are active and critical, who don’t accept situations without analyzing them inwardly and deeply. We no longer want masses of people like those who have been trifled with for so long. We want persons like fruitful fig trees, who can say yes to justice and no to injustice and can make use of the precious gift of life, regardless of the circumstances…
- Archbishop Oscar Romero
Opening song: Prayer for peace
Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace
Love before us, love behind us, love under our feet
Love within us, love over us, let all around us be love
Light before us, light behind us, light under our feet
Light within us, light over us, let all around us be light
Welcome
Isaiah 43:16-21
16Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.
A Selection from Oscar Romero:
This Lent, which we observe amid blood and sorrow, ought to presage a transfiguration of our people, a resurrection of our nation. The church invites us to a modern form of penance, of fasting and prayer… But it should not be out of a mistaken sense of resignation. God does not want that. Rather, feeling in one’s flesh the consequences of sin and injustice, one is stimulated to work for social justice and a genuine love for the poor. Our Lent should awaken a sense of social justice…
Let us not let Christ be absent from our history. That is what is most important at this moment in our nation’s history: that Christ be God’s glory and power, and that the scandal of the cross and of pain not make us flee from Christ and cast aside suffering. Instead, let us embrace it…. The great need today is for Christians who are active and critical, who don’t accept situations without analyzing them inwardly and deeply. We no longer want masses of people like those who have been trifled with for so long. We want persons like fruitful fig trees, who can say yes to justice and no to injustice and can make use of the precious gift of life, regardless of the circumstances…
A Church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what Gospel is that?
Remembering the Martyrs
Let us bring the cloud of witness into our circle:
Oscar Romero… presente! Rutilio Grande… Octavio Ortiz… Marienela Garcia… Herbert Anaya… Maura Clarke… Jean Donovan… Ita Ford… Dorothy Kazel… Febe Elizabeth Velasquez… Ignacio Ellacuria… Segundo Montes… Ignacio Martin Baro… Amando Lopez… Juan Ramon Moreno… Joaquin Lopez… all humble men and women killed in El Salvador…. the children of the Sumpul River… the children of El Mozote… Rufina Amaya… presente!
Gospel Reading: John 12:23-24
Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
OSCAR ROMERO: The Prophetic Vocation
Prayer: God of Life and Peace, you inspired your servant, Oscar Romero, to be a prophetic witness for justice and peace. Open our hearts to the sound of your call for peace in these times. Give us the courage to respond and the wisdom to know how. Help us to quell all violence in our world, especially that violence for which we are directly responsible. Let us call all people brother and sister and contribute in palpable ways to the transformation of the world. Amen.
A Reading from Oscar Romero:
“For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty, and dignity are a heartfelt suffering. The church, entrusted with the earth’s glory, believes that each person is the Creator’s image and that everyone who tramples it offends God. As holy defender of God’s rights and of his images, the church must cry out. It takes as spittle in its face, and lashes on its back, as the cross in the passion, all that human beings suffer, even though they may be unbelievers. They suffer as God’s images. There is no dichotomy between man and God’s image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being abuses God’s image, and the church takes as its own that cross, that martyrdom.”
Leader: For the ways in which our choices have not been made with full awareness of the worth and dignity of every human person and the sacredness of all human life, we pray for mercy and forgiveness…
All: Forgive us, O God.
OSCAR ROMERO: Defense of Human Rights
Recording of Romero’s Last Sunday Homily
Prayer: Nothing is so important to the church as human life, as the human person, above all, the person of the poor and the oppressed. Besides being human beings, they are also divine beings, since Jesus said that whatever is done to them he takes as done to him. That bloodshed, those deaths, are beyond all politics. They touch the very heart of God. (Oscar Romero 3/16/80)
Leader: For the ways in which our choices have not been made with full awareness of the worth and dignity of every human person and the sacredness of all human life, we pray for mercy and forgiveness…
All: Forgive us, O God.
Song: Ashes (Tom Conroy)
We rise again from ashes from the good we’ve failed to do. We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew. If all our world is ashes, then must our lives be true, an offering of ashes, an offering to You.
We offer You our failures, we offer You attempts; the gifts not fully given, the dreams not fully dreamt. Give our stumblings direction, give our visions wider view, an offering of ashes, an offering to You.
Then rise again from ashes, let healing come to pain, though spring has turned to winter, and sunshine turned to rain. The rain we’ll use for growing, and create the world anew, from an offering of ashes, an offering to you.
Read the names (Iraqi, Afghan and US war-dead, the names of Guantanamo prisoners, the names of victims of the SOA)
Litany of Repentance and Conversion:
During this Lenten Season we ask God’s forgiveness for our complicity in the violence now unleashed in our world and we repent of the violence in our hearts.
Announcements
Closing Song: Peace, Salaam, Shalom
