Oscar Romero believed that the poor informed us about what the mission of the church should be. “Romero found in the poor ‘the key’ to understanding what the world is really like and what the mission of the church should be:”

“Experiencing these realities, and letting ourselves be affected by them, far from separating us from our faith, has sent us back to the world of the poor as to our true home. It has moved us, as a first, basic step, to take the world of poor upon ourselves. It is there that we have found the real faces of the poor…There we have met farmworkers without land and without steady employment, without running water or electricity in their homes, without medical assistance when mothers give birth, and without schools for their children…”

Romero helped the world discover the injustices that were taking place in El Salvador. “Anyone committed to the poor must suffer the same fate as the poor. And in El Salvador we know the fate of the poor: to be taken away, to be tortured, to be jailed, to be found dead.”

My heart bursts as I think about the treatment of the people of El Salvador even to this very day. We sit in our privilege here in the United States, burying our heads in the sand as we turn a blind eye to the US foreign diplomatic policies that have plagued Central America since the 1980’s (likely earlier than that). The outrage burns inside of me, but I feel helpless when I think about the things that I can or can’t do to effect change. What do I do here in my own area? What does the Gospel demand of me? It demands that I love God, love my neighbors, and love myself. It demands that I sit with the disenfranchised while I listen to their life stories.