Monday, November 16, 2020
Last year close to the 30th anniversary of the massacre of six Jesuit priests their housekeeper and her daughter on November 16, 1989, I read Carolyn Forche’s memoir, What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance. This remarkable memoir about meeting Leonel Gomez Vides, who talked her into going to El Salvador just before the civil war broke out in all its force gives us an insight into what happens to a society when those in power fear letting go even just a bit.
I first met Carolyn Forche through her piece on Monseñor Romero in a book entitled Martyrs: Contemporary Writers on Modern Lives of Faith, another remarkable book for its reminder of who we claim to be as Christians. Then I read some of her poetry. You cannot read it without being moved. If you look her up on the internet you will find some of her poems on the Poetry Foundation website.
The Jesuits murdered this day 31 years ago were remarkable men who worked with the poor in El Salvador; they presented a Christ who stood with the poor in their struggle for justice. They were Ignacio Ellacuria, Armando Lopez, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Juan Ramon Moreno. It is also important to remember the names of the housekeeper Celina Ramos and her daughter Elba Julia Ramos; they represent the poor and often forgotten like those who died from the virus, working at low paying jobs, the result of the corruption of power.
Prayer for the Day
We wonder, O God, where we are in times of trial,
For too often we consider the cost of your call to do justice.
Let us not turn ourselves away out of fear,
But grant us the faith to transform our lives
In the name of him who is our model,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
It isn’t the risk of death and the fear of danger that prevent people from rising up. It is numbness, acquiescence, and the defeat of the mind.
Leonel Gomez Vides
I find myself now the boatman, driving a taxi at the end of the world.
I will see that you arrive safely, my friend, I will get you there.
Carolyn Forche, “The Boatman”
Happy are those who consider the poor; may the Lord make them safe.
Psalm 41: 1