AN EXPLOSION
OF ENERGY
New Year 2017
The
international Iter (journey)
programme in Southern France aims to “trap a plasma in a huge magnetic ring and
force heavy hydrogen isotopes to fuse together to release prodigious amounts of
energy.” Do you understand? I don’t! But I can grasp that the work – which is
taking decades and costing billions – is about making “clean, safe, limitless
energy for a world that will soon house 10 billion energy hungry citizens.”
“Fuse!” The
noun, according to google means, anger, rage, ferocity, passion. The verb means
blend, mingle, unite, merge. The noun means war, the verb means peace!
Basically, the word means energy. Iter
is bringing the sun’s energy down to earth. Christmas is bringing God’s energy
down to earth. He came to mingle with us and the result was explosive. In the
end it consumed him on Calvary, his passion.
I have just
read a moving account of the life and death of Oscar Romero, by Roberto Morozzo
della Rocca. Romero was the archbishop of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador,
a small country on the isthmus joining North and South America. He had a
traditional Catholic formation and studied for the priesthood in Rome where he
admired the stand of Pope Pius XI against the Fascists and the Nazis.
Back home he
immersed himself in pastoral work and became aware of the opposite views
prevailing in El Salvador. Wealth and property was in the hands of a small
elite who manipulated elections so that the huge population of destitute rural
peasants had no voice. He became a bishop and later archbishop but saw that
some of his fellow bishops went along with the government for the sake of
“peace” while he and one other bishop began to speak out.
The 1970s
was the age of guerrilla warfare in Viet Nam, Angola, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua and
soon El Salvador. The only way to bring change was through the barrel of a gun.
Romero disagreed and he began to speak out against these “popular” movements
also. Liberation without salvation, he preached, brought no profound change.
The only thing that was different was the people in charge.
Romero had
now “offended” the government elite, his fellow bishops - who denounced him to
Rome so that Rome began to ask questions – and now the grass roots movements.
He met hostility on every side. But he was a deeply prayerful person and kept
testing his stand in the light of Church teaching – especially after Vatican II
– and the advice of the many he consulted, including ordinary people. He
received great affirmation from the latter who knew he was motivated by love of
them and the Lord he served.
It all came
to a head in March 1980 when his calls to end the violence infuriated the elite
and they had him murdered as he was celebrating the Eucharist. Civil war then
broke out in earnest and lasted 12 years. The church herself battled to
understand him: was he a popular agitator, a “political bishop”, a divider of
the bishops’ conference? Or was he a saint and martyr, faithful to the Lord
when all around him were confused and fearful. The church finally came to the
second opinion in 2014 when he was beatified by Pope Francis.
I am
particularly struck by the impossible position Romero was in towards the end.
Like Jesus, he fearlessly spoke out and they decided to do away with him as
they did with his Lord. It was another act of fusion: highly motivated by the
gospel and his love of Jesus and his people Romero clashed with the evil
culture that had developed in El Salvador over decades. And there was an explosion
and he was consumed in it. Yet his death brought a new level of consciousness
in El Salvador and in South America generally. His total offering released an
explosion of energy and hope.
