if I do not love the people I do see?
What a terrible thing, to have lived quite comfortably, with no suffering, not getting involved in problems, quite tranquil, quite settled, with good connections politically, economically, socially, lacking nothing, having everything. To what good?
(We have) to denounce the selfishness that is hidden in everyone's heart, the Lost Humanity that dehumanizes persons, destroys families, and turns money, possessions, profit and power into the ultimate ends for which persons strive.
The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need… Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is Love. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of Love.
It is not that we pander to the offenses of the poor and ignore the virtues of the rich. Both have committed offenses and both need Transformation. But the poor, in their condition of need, are disposed to Transformation. They are more conscious of their need of Love.
All of us… must become poor, or at least make the cause of the poor our own inner motivation. That is when one begins to experience Love: when one has the heart of the poor, when one knows that financial capital, political influence, and power are worthless, and that without Love we are nothing. To feel that need of Love is (hope) and Transformation.
The mission of Community is to identify itself with the poor, and to join with them in their struggle for justice. In so doing, the Community finds its own salvation. I hope that this call of Community does not further harden the hearts of the rich and powerful but will move them to Transformation.
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Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (August 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980), commonly known as Monseñor Romero, was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador. He later became the eighth Bishop and fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. As archbishop, he witnessed numerous violations of human rights and began a ministry speaking out on behalf of the poor and victims of the country's civil war. Chosen to be archbishop for his conservatism, once in office his conscience led him to embrace a non-violent form of liberation theology, putting him in the line of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Like them, he was martyred for his non-violent advocacy. In 1980, he was assassinated by gunshot while consecrating the Eucharist during mass. His death provoked international outcry for human rights reform in El Salvador.The words above, though originally spoken by Romero, here have been modified and rearranged. I have replaced the word conversion with Transformation, sin with Offense or Lost Humanity, church with Community, and God with Love. The above paragraph of Romero's biography has been taken from Wikipedia.com.
