I am bound, as a pastor, by divine command to give my life for those whom I love, and that is all Salvadoreans, even those who are going to kill me.
God is not satisfied with appearance. God wants the garment of justice. God wants his Christians dressed in love.
That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.
If God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my death be for the freedom of my people. A bishop will die, but the Church of God, which is the people, will never perish. I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador.
Let us not forget: we are a pilgrim church, subject to misunderstanding, to persecution, but a church that walks serene, because it bears the force of love.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
The Bible has a very meaningful expression: The Spirit makes all things new. We are those who grow old, and we want everything done to our aged standards. The Spirit is never old; the Spirit is always young.
One must not love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives.
That we may give our body and our blood over to suffering and pain, like Christ – not for Self, but to give harvests of peace and justice to our People.
Our responsibility as Christians makes us tremble.
When we leave Mass, we ought to go out the way Moses descended Mt Sinai: with his face shining, with his heart brave and strong to face the world’s difficulties.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
Ask and it shall be given you; Seek and ye shall find; Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth; And he that seeketh, Findeth; and to him that knocketh It shall be opened. Aspire not to have more, but to be more.
No confession brings perfection.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
True liberty does violence to self and, like Christ, who disregarded that he was sovereign becomes a slave to serve others.
Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.
A Christian’s authenticity is show in difficult hours it is in difficult hours that the church grows in authenticity. Blest be God for this difficult hour in our archdiocese. Let us be worthy of it.