[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”1626980101″ locale=”us” height=”333″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mu%2BIy2dhL.jpg” width=”228″ alt=”Maria Lopez Vigil” ]Taking the Risks that History Demands of Us
A Feature Review of
Monseñor Romero: Memories in Mosaic
María López Vigil
Paperback: Orbis Books, 2013.
Buy now: [ [easyazon-link asin=”1626980101″ locale=”us”]Amazon[/easyazon-link] ]
Reviewed by Danny Wright.
DOWNLOAD a FREE ebook of Oscar Romero’s THE VIOLENCE OF LOVE
In Monseñor Romero by María López Vigil, the reader is invited into the heart, mind and soul of a brilliant leader who struggled to become the voice of the peasants in El Salvador and was eventually martyred for his faith in 1980. It is a moving story that allows us to watch the ebbs and flows of a difficult journey for a nation at war with itself, and how its leaders have to battle with self-doubt as well as the doubts of those around them. The book allows the story to unfold through the voices of friends and enemies alike who deliver their side of the story in vignettes. We are allowed to enter Romero’s humble living area at the hospitalito and hear from his own pen in his diary as he wrestles with the questions and the pain that his country was experiencing. We also enter the then unfinished cathedral and sit in the pew and listen as he calls out the evils of the government and its military. It is in that room where we also are inspired by his commitment to his faith and his belief in the victory that God provides in Christ.
This book kept me in constant emotional sway. I would cry as St. Romero of the Americas would enter villages in the distant mountains to celebrate Mass, and choose to visit every impoverished Campesino home and love those people on a level that no one else would ever choose to love them, except Christ. I will never forget how he walked out into the country and joined a priest listening to the Bible study of some peasants. When asked what he thought, he said that he was learning to understand the Bible in a new light. When his friend Father Rutilio Grande was killed and he finally understood that it was time to step into the fray and resolutely set his face towards whatever end would come, he went the extra mile to love a people that had been overlooked, oppressed and forgotten. He even rearranged his office so that the peasants could eat and drink while they waited to meet with him. He also allowed his own people, and those in need, to take precedent over even the most important of officials from the United States. Of course, this book calls into question the American involvement in the scenario that led to the loss of so many lives as well. It even describes how the church, including Rome and the Pope, had trouble handling Archbishop Romero and what was transpiring in El Salvador. It was a tempestuous and tumultuous time that called for real heroes, and men and women of God rose to meet the challenge.
He shepherded the nation from the cathedral. His sermons were broadcast on the radio, and one person remembered how they were able to leave the house, even after the message began, because every radio up and down the street was tuned to the broadcast. People came from everywhere to hear their beloved Monseñor preach. One woman, who had traveled from nearly 100 kilometers away wanted to present him with gifts, but the crowds surrounding him after the service prevented her from approaching him. She decided, instead, to give her gifts to one of the concelebrating priests, and asked him to deliver them to Archbishop Romero. Her paper bag revealed two eggs and one colon, worth about forty cents on the dollar at the time. The priest, Antonio Fernandez Ibanez, was touched by the woman’s devotion and replied that she must have spent a lot of her money on her bus ticket to the cathedral. She said that she had not, because she had walked.
When Archbishop Romero was concerned about his mental state, he went to Mexico to speak with a psychiatrist that did not know who he was. When he arrived, he introduced himself as Alvaro Herrera and told his story of being married with children and grandchildren, and of how he was a high ranking official in a large Salvadoran company that was in need of a lot of attention. After three days of tests and conversations, the doctor assured him that he was up to the task, but that he could probably use a couple of days in Acapulco. The two had become friends during their sessions. After Romero revealed his identity, the doctor refused payment, but they finally agreed that the Archbishop would give him a check, and that the doctor would then, in turn, write a larger check for the church in San Salvador.
As he neared the end of his life, he was often seen driving his own car around town by himself. He did not want anyone else to lose their life when people finally came for him. Romero was sold out to the cause of Christ and trusted that God could do what was necessary with or without him. He once said that the word revolution carried a lot of the gospel in it. Romero also told one interviewer that as a Christian, he did not believe in death, because he believed in the resurrection, and that if he died, he would rise again in the Salvadoran people. A bishop would die, “but the church, which is the people, will never perish.” In his Christmas Eve homily from 1979, he preached, “What seems impossible now–what seems a dead end street– is already being marked by God with hope.” He was convinced that God would rescue his country and that the good news of Jesus would shine forever. On the evening that he was martyred during mass in that little chapel, Divina Providencia, he said, “it’s important not to love ourselves so much, that we’re not willing to take the risks that history demands of us…”
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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Thank you Danny. This lovely review will be linked on June 11 menu of http://www.v2catholic.com . I am hoping Pope Francis will visit El Salvador before or after July visit to Brazil ……to beatify, if not canonize, Romero