Prophets of a future not our own

A reflection by Oscar Romero,

He was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador and a champion of justice  for the poor and the oppressed. He spoke out against the Salvadorian Regime and its ways of torture and assassination. A regime that oppressed the masses and protected the powerful and rich.

He practised 'reading the signs of the times' and clearly understood  what was really happening. In short, he was a prophet of our times and a man of the people. Like many prophetic mystics before him, he was feared and hated by those who held and abused power. It is no surprise that to 'still his voice' he was assassinated in 1980 at the Altar of his church. However, this did not silence the Regime's critics it merely empowered them to protest even more.

This reflection reminds us to resist measuring our accomplishments and gives a very liberating picture of the roles of the Master ( Teacher or Guru) and  the Disciple. It also emphasises that our task is to live a fruitful life in order to hand-on a better future for our descendants and our planet

We accomplish in our life time only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No programme accomplishes

the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives

 includes everything.

This is what we are about

We plant the seeds that one day will grow

We water seeds already planted,

Knowing that they hold promise.

We lay foundations that

Will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces

Effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realising 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 to do the rest, but that is the difference between master builder and the worker.

We are the workers, not master builders. Ministers, not Messiahs We are prophets of a future not our own

Oscar Romero