St. Oscar Romero: A Lenten Saint

This was the theme of Todd Walatka’s talk given on 11th March, hosted at the City Campus of Leeds Trinity University under the banner of SPARK Social Justice.

Using quotes from St Oscar’s homilies, interspersed with a few from Pope Leo, Todd explored how St Oscar used his preaching as a way of promoting the key traditional themes of Lent: Prayer, fasting and Almsgiving.

Prayer was a recurring theme in his preaching and he was always exhorting people to ‘give glory to God’. This is a common enough sentiment in Church circles. It maybe conjures up pictures of being in churches with incense burning and people on their knees. However, his vision was much more concerned with seeing the Glory of God through his encounters with other people – especially the rural peasants (campesinos) and recognising that ‘the Glory of God is the human person ‘fully alive’.

Fasting is the moment to review your life ‘and judge things, to see if you value anything more than God’. Do we value money, possessions, power more than God?

Almsgiving he talks about in terms of ‘experiencing ourselves as brothers and sisters’. Time and again, St Oscar talks about deepening our understanding of what it means to be ‘fully human’. The way to do this is through reflecting on our understanding the full humanity (c/f dignity) of our brothers and sisters.

Todd related the most striking example of this, given by St Oscar during the homily at the funeral of his assassinated friend Rutilio Grande SJ. In that homily, Romero directly addressed the killers with the striking phrase “queridos asesinos” — literally “dear murderers” — as part of a call to conversion, reconciliation, and justice.

He then goes on to speak about forgiveness, the need for conversion, and the Church’s refusal to respond with hatred. The ability to do that must give all of us pause for thought.

It was an inter-generational event with university students as well as retired people coming along. One SPARK community member commented  “I thought it would be more academic, but it was inspirational.”

Another said “I came along but didn’t think I would meet people who are saying out loud what I have been thinking in my head.”