Monsenor Romero, a Salvadoran and a Christian

The most essential thing about the life, faith, praxis, and destiny of Monseñor Romero was this: he was a real human being, in a real world and a real church, with a real faith, real hope, and real commitment. ¹ This is what I wish to affirm when I say that Monseñor was, simply and above all else, a Salvadoran and a Christian. I want to recall this clearly so that Monseñor Romero will not be relegated to the void--to la nada. This is what many of those who, in his day, hated him and killed him would like. Many of those who even today do not know what to do about him would like this, too. I want to recall his realism, above all, in order that Monseñor not be relegated to a kind of unreality, to appearance or to Docetism, or turned into a figure on a pedestal who offends no one. It is the profound realism of Monseñor Romero's spirituality that has affected me the most. But before reflecting on that spirituality, I want to say something first about the problems I have with using this word, and why.

I must confess that the word "spirituality" makes me uncomfortable and even scares me somewhat. The reason for this is that spirituality comes from Spirit, and the Spirit is something that is not visible and is often contrasted with what is material and historical. For this reason, to speak of spirituality can and often does carry us, one way or another, off to an invisible world, or even to an unreal one. This danger is clearly present whenever we speak about spirituality, but it is especially tragic that it becomes manifest when one is speaking about Monseñor Romero's spirituality, because if there is one thing that Monseñor did not do, it was to live in an unreal world or insulate himself from the reality of El Salvador. Quite the contrary. Without a doubt Monseñor maintained an intimate relationship with God, the great Invisible, but that did not lead him to confuse the world of spirituality with the world of the invisible. Rather, it led him to incarnate spirituality extremely deeply and radically in the reality of El Salvador. He was, ever increasingly, a "real" archbishop, Christian, and Salvadoran. Spirituality never carried him off into an unreal world.

In the final section I will return to Monseñor's relationship with God. But at this point I simply want to emphasize that he did not fall into this danger and trap--typical of many spiritual persons--as we often see in the history of the Church. Many years ago a French author observed, in denouncing this error, "Because they are not of this world, they think that they are heavenly beings. Because they don't love human beings, they think they love God." Perhaps these are harsh words, but they are useful and necessary, because they put us on our guard against a spirituality that is false.

What am I saying, then, about Monseñor Romero's spirituality, if this spirituality did not carry him off to an invisible or an unreal world? Basically, I would like to say that Monseñor lived his life in the sight of God and of human beings, and that his work, suffering, and dreams were characterized by power and energy. This is quite proper, because power and energy are both signified by the word "spirit." Monseñor Romero was a spiritual person because he was filled with the power of God, with the Spirit of God. But once again, to avoid falling into the error of attaching wings to the Spirit, let us remember that this Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, and none other. The Spirit molded Monseñor Romero into a likeness of Jesus.

If we ask...