from The Journey with Jesus: Poems and Prayers
from my inbox today.
Selected by Dan Clendenin
In memory of Oscar Romero (1917–1980)
A Future Not Our Own
It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
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 program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one
day will grow. We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
day will grow. We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future 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 realizing this.
liberation in realizing this.
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 do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the
difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not
messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.
messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.
From Xavarian Missionaries:
Oscar A. Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, in El Salvador, was
assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a small chapel
in a cancer hospital where he lived.
He had always been close to his
people, preached a prophetic gospel, denouncing the injustice in his
country and supporting the development of popular and mass
organizations. He became the voice of the Salvadoran people when all
other channels of expression had been crushed by the repression.
This prayer was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, drafted
for a homily by Card. John Dearden in Nov. 1979 for a celebration of
departed priests. As a reflection on the anniversary of the martyrdom of
Bishop Romero, Bishop Untener included it in a reflection titled "The
mystery of the Romero Prayer."
The mystery is that the words of the
prayer are attributed to Oscar Romero, but they were never spoken by
him.
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