A Future Not Our Own

I was reminded that today we celebrate the feast of Oscar Romero, priest, activist, and martyr.  It was a movie of his life that first attracted me to Romero.  In the film he was portrayed as a good priest, though conservative in his application of the Gospel.  The assassination of a dear friend, and Jesuit, changed his own views and he began to speak out against the government of El Salvador, and pleaded to the US government to stop aiding the military of his country.  

When the government repression of the Salvadoran people silenced their voices he took to the airwaves of a small radio station and became their voice.  He became their light and their hope.  While celebrating Mass 40 years ago today, he was assassinated. This was not the last assassination by the El Salvadoran army, but it was the shot heard around the world.  

A statue of Archbishop Romero stands at the west entrance of Westminster Cathedral in London; his statue is joined with 9 other modern martyrs, Martin Luther King and Dietrich Bonhoeffer among them.  

For those with only a passing knowledge of Romero he may be best known for a poem that is credited to him.  In fact the poem was written by Bishop Ken Untener for the occasion of the Mass for Deceased Priests, and first shared a year before Romero’s martyrdom.  This poem was shared with St. John’s by Bishop Baxter on the occasion of my installation as Rector; and it has been a comfort to me throughout my ordained ministry.  

A Future Not Our Own

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction

of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of

saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith. 

No confession brings perfection. 

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about. 

We plant the seeds that one day will grow. 

We water the seeds already planted,

knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything,

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,

a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's

grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the

difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. 

We are prophets of a future not our own.  Amen.

As we wonder in these uncertain times we plant seeds, and we water seeds already planted.  Much of what we do today will accompany us tomorrow.  When we  come together again we will share the fruits of our labors and see a little glimpse of the Kingdom of God that we shaped together.  That glimpse, though incomplete, is something, a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

God be with you until we meet again.

Fr. Henry+