“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.”

~Hafiz of Shiraz~

today we have a stellar image for showing the astonishing light of your being… a man whose life was dedicated to helping the poor and disenfranchised, a man who could not be silenced was canonized by Pope Francis today… St Romero has long been a national hero of El Salvador… repeatedly condemning military dictatorship attacks on El Salvador’s civilian population, he was murdered by a gunman while holding mass on March 24, 1980 setting off El Salvador’s civil war (1980-1992)…

in his homily on March 23, 1980, the day before he was murdered, Romero addressed the Salvadoran military directly:

Brothers, we are part of the same people. You are killing your own brother and sister peasants and when you are faced with an order to kill given by a man, the law of God must prevail; the law that says: Thou shalt not kill. No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. And it is time that you recover your consciences. . . . In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise up to heaven each day more tumultuously, I plead with you, I pray you, I order you, in the name of God: Stop the repression!

only a few weeks earlier, Romero had said:

I have often been threatened with death. I must tell you, as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If I am killed, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people. I say so without boasting, with the greatest humility. . . A bishop will die, but God’s church, which is the people, will never perish.

in addition to arising in the Salvadoran people, St Romero, you shine as a beacon of light for all our relatives eternally…

om shanti shanti shantihi