Saint Oscar Romero
Back during Lent, with the gospel of "The Man Born Blind," I gave the following homily. It was inspired by my former spiritual director Pat Carroll, in his book "Take Home Homilies." Take this one home...
Last Sunday we encountered a Jesus who was Living Water – a Life that bubbles up within us, and refreshes our soul. Today we encounter the man Born Blind, who is touched by waters that open his eyes to Newfound Vision. Darkness turns into Light, and – as our 2nd Reading today tells us, we should live as “children of light, producing every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.” Who we are as a community should “expose the works of darkness.” That’s a powerful Vision all by itself.
Today we are warned that if we feel that this renewal of our baptism is not necessary, or that this gospel message was fine at its time but doesn’t speak to us, well, we might just as well go stand with the Pharisees, who think – perhaps like us – that they see just fine already. What IS frightening is the blindness that is willed – chosen – because to see what is very plain will ask too much of us, will be too great a risk. The Pharisees in today’s story would have had to disrupt their entire religious conceptual framework to acknowledge that Jesus actually worked the miracle that they could not help but see … so they steadfastly refused to see it! … What might there be that we refuse to see? You know, I find that a scary thought all by itself. What might there be that each of us here refuses to see?
Each year around this time I cannot help but remember the heroic Saint Oscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador, who was martyred while saying Mass, on March 24, 1980, which falls this year on Palm Sunday. It helps to remember also that for years, Oscar Romero himself did not see the poverty of his people; he did not see his own Church’s collusion in that poverty. He had many friends among the wealthy of El Salvador. It was only when his friend, Jesuit Fr. Rutillo Grande, was killed because of his care for his poor parishioners…only then did Romero’s blinders lift. He SAW; and this sight changed him, as he became aware of the plight of the poor. He saw the rulers of his country differently, and his Church and society with new eyes. This renewed vision led Oscar Romero to speak and act.
He asked then-president Carter to quit financing the Salvadoran government and their military, pleading with the US to intervene for peace. And briefly, under Carter we did. But as administrations changed we quickly supported the war again as 30,000 people were killed, including American Catholic women and a number of Jesuits. And many US followers of Jesus saw this war going on, as we have so many others like it; but if we had really “seen” …it may have changed our lives. And what about our wars of today, in Ukraine and Gaza, in Sudan, and more?
It is not easy to “SEE.” It is not easy to speak out loud what we see! And when we do speak words like this, there are often those who get upset -- confirming why it is so difficult to “see.”
But does not take a war to make something difficult for us to “see.” What about POVERTY? I am glad OLL supports God’s Little Acre and Francis House, and we’ve built tiny homes more than once. And Lent has Rice Bowl, and a 2nd collection for Catholic Relief Services. But poverty is even bigger than that! Perhaps if people could really see the faces of the homeless, the hungry, the hopeless in our land, we might all be compelled to change, and to work for change.
Another issue that’s hard to SEE: gun violence. There was an article this weekend on the front page of the Sunday Seattle Times about this. In 2022 there were over 48,000 deaths in the United States, almost 20,000 homicides and 27,000 suicides. Guns were the leading cause of death for children and teens for the 5th year in a row – and many of these deaths and certainly many of those suicides would have been preventable if guns were not so available. What does it mean to SEE this as more than a “lamentable statistic?”
This last statistic prompts a question that you may raised yourself: where are our Catholic high schoolers and young adults? Look around the church… I know we’ve all noticed this – do we SEE? Have we forgotten how to nurture their faith? Are we looking in the right places? Two weeks ago, I went to Seattle University for a “Sacred Salmon Town Hall”… and I was surprised, overwhelmed, and delighted! I found myself sitting in the LeRoux conference center, FILLED with high school and college Catholics. It was packed, and I was sitting with seven students from Seattle Prep. The youth themselves led all the presentations and discussions, except for two special invited guests: a Tribal representative and a staffer from Pramila Jayapal’s office. It was organized with the help of SU Campus Ministry and the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center or IPJC for short. WOW! These Catholic youth were not missing; they were in action!
And we do not need to deal only with huge swooping issues to feel the truth of today’s gospel. In the quiet of our personal lives, we know it is difficult to look with honest at the reality of all our relationships and to tell the truth about them…How hard it is to admit that a particular relationship is unforgiving on someone’s part…and then to take the steps to change that…or to really own up to another relationship we have as unloving…and then take the steps to change it.
In our Gospel story today our “Hero”, the man born blind, was ruthlessly scrutinized, asked over and over and over again: what happened, and how, and by whom. Finally, unwilling to believe this formerly blind man, the Pharisees - who see so clearly - throw him out of the temple. Then this same man born blind meets Jesus, and he meets him as savior, because this now seeing servant tells the truth of what he saw, what he knew, no matter what: “I was blind; now I see.”
And the goats of the story, the Pharisees, refused to see what was right before their eyes …and so even Jesus could do nothing for them.
Today, with our Elect, we might use this story to help scrutinize our lives, and what we believe in. Because we do long - don’t we? - to have our eyes truly opened on every level, stripping away whatever keeps us from seeing with the very eyes of Jesus. Let us turn to our Eucharist today and trustingly lay our hearts before the Lord, and ask Jesus for the grace to SEE with our eyes and with our hearts.
May God Bless us ALL.