On March 24, 1980, Óscar Arnulfo Romero was murdered by the order of the Salvadorian government from a single shot to the heart while officiating the Eucharist. Romero lived publicly with his people. He also died publicly for his people.
Bishop Romero walked with the poor and oppressed, proclaiming in word and deed that another world was possible. His denunciations against the injustices in El Salvador –under the auspices of the government and approving hand of the empire- echoed a most literal confrontation with the principalities and powers of the age. Both, his life and death witnessed the hope of resurrection. As he asserted, “As a Christian, I don’t believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will resurrect in the Salvadorian people.”
We often think of martyrs as sacred lives that refuse to deny the God of life in Christ. But martyrs are also those who sacrificially insist on publicizing the God of life in Christ in the face of death.
