Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’  John 4:13-14

++Oscar Romero was martyred on March 24^th, 1980, gunned down at the altar while he celebrate the Eucharist, by the military dictatorship of the time.  He had argued relentlessly, fearlessly for the rights of the poor and the oppressed of El Salvador, and was seen as a clear and present danger to those in power, the wealthy few families of the country, who controlled the military also.  Archbishop Romero followed his Lord Jesus to the cross, and died for the love of God, for the love of human beings.  Thirty four years later his own passion/suffering and death bear clear witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus; death has not silenced him any more than it silenced his Lord and Master.

“For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty and dignity are a heartfelt suffering.  The church, entrusted with the earth’s glory, believes that in each person is the Creator’s image and that everyone who tramples it offends God.  As the holy defender of God’s rights and of God’s images, the church must cry out.  It takes as spittle in its face, as lashes on its back, as the cross in its passion, all that human beings suffer, even though they be unbelievers.  They suffer as God’s images.  Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being abuses God’s image, and the church takes as its own that cross, that martyrdom.”

Thanks be to God!