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Sometimes words that are very familiar strike us as if we were
hearing them for the first time. This Sunday it was the words God
addressed to Moses from the burning bush: "I have seen the misery of
my people."
Can you imagine to how many events and places of the last 100 years
and the present we can apply these words?
Thirty years ago today, Rutillo Grande, parish priest, and Manuel and
Nelson, an old man and a child, were martyred in El Salvador. Anyone
who has seen the film Romero will remember seeing the archbishop
arriving before the bodies laid out on the ground before the church.
It was as if he had seen for the first time the misery of his people.
He took an unprecedented decision. The funeral for all three would be
in the cathedral in the capital on Sunday and there would be no other
mass in all of El Salvador on that Sunday. That sight changed Romero
forever and it led him where he would rather not go, just like Moses.
Last week, Rufina Amaya, known around the world as the sole survivor
of the infamous massacre at El Mozote, died from heart complications
on March 6, 2007. The December 11th, 1981 massacre at El Mozote ,
orchestrated and carried out by the Salvadoran military with the
backing of the U.S. government, claimed over 1,100 lives. Rufina´s
survival was a miracle. She escaped the massacre listening to the
screams and cries of her townspeople, and even her own children, as
they were brutally murdered. She continued to be the most visible
symbol of the importance of historical memory, re-telling her tragic
story over and over for foreign delegations, journalists, and even in
the U.S. Congress. She saw the misery of her people and she led many
to that place of conversion.
When I was in El Salvador for the 25th anniversary of Romero's death,
I travelled with a group of Canadians who had fled El Salvador. There
were grandparents, parents, children who were born in Canada. It was
very moving to visit places where violence occurred, places they had
never before then revisited. But I saw only part of the misery of
their people. Someone from the group reminded me one day that even
though no one from her family had been killed, they continually lost
friends, co-workers and that was hard as well.
Today is the 70th anniversary of Gandhi Salt March in nonviolent
defiance of British rule. He also saw the misery of his people and
chose to go where he would rather not go.
We are called not only to see the misery of our people but, like
Moses, to let ourselves go where often we would rather not. God
depends on us to act.
Cecily
