Pastor’s Corner

It would be worthless to have an economic liberation
in which all the poor had their own house,
their own money,
but were all sinners,
their hearts estranged from God.
What good would it be?
There are nations at present
that are economically and socially quite advanced,
for example those of northern Europe,
and yet how much vice and excess!
The church will always have its word to say:
conversion.
Progress will not be completed
even if we organize ideally the economy
and the political and social orders of our people.
It won’t be entire with that.
That will be the basis, so that it can be completed
by what the church pursues and proclaims:
God adored by all,
Christ acknowledged as only Savior,
deep joy of spirit
in being at peace with God
and with our brothers and sisters.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador wrote these words in 1977 under the title “The Violence of Love.” “Violence” and “love” don’t seem to belong together. Neither does the contrast between economic liberation and having “hearts estranged from God.” As odd companions as these words and concepts are, they are the soul of Lent with the conclusion being the Passion Story. All four Gospel stories lead us to the cross — where we the “violence of love” in God’s sacrifice through Jesus meets human “hearts estranged from God.”

In March, 1980. Archbishop Romero was assassinated while consecrating Holy Communion. That was an obvious display of violence, but it was not the “violence of love” which we know at the cross. As Romans 5.8-11 reads,

“But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

On Ash Wednesday, we enter into the season of Lent. It’s a long but necessary journey as we find ourselves in the Passion Story. The characters come alive, because they, like us, are sinners in need of salvation. There is no shortage of violence in our world today. There is also no shortage of God’s love in Christ. In truth, this love of God in Christ is the light shining which no darkness can overcome.

Grace and peace to you,

Philip Nesvig, pastor