Homily for November 15, 2009

Father Tom’s Homily
33rd Sunday
November 15, 2009

Among the treasures of our Catholic Faith are our memories of the holy ones, our brothers and sisters who are remembered as faithful disciples of Jesus.
We call them the saints. We consider them kinfolk who remain close to us. Their memory is sacred. We love them and realize their loving presence as guides on our journey.

We remember Mary, who served God perfectly by being a good mother.
We remember Francis of Assisi, who teaches us to be poor in spirit.
We remember Vincent de Paul who helped the needy.
We remember Teresa, who teaches us to pray.
We remember Dorothy Day, a political and religious radical, whose life and writings are an expression of the Beautitudes.
We remember John XXIII, a pope full of warmth, humor and holiness.

But in our tradition of honoring the saints we remember in a special way those saints we call the martyrs. They have been called by God to witness the faith in Jesus with their blood.
More than catechisms or ceremonies or cathedrals or even miracles, it is the martyrs who is the most eloquent witnesses to the extravagant love of God.
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.” It is a most sacred calling to imitate Jesus, the Martyred One. We keep his memory before us in the large crucifix in this sanctuary.

Throughout Christian history there have been martyrs in great numbers. In modern times there are a multitude of holy martyrs. A few have been declared official saints of the Church. But there are also innumerable unnamed martyrs. Some we remember in a special way here at St. Mary.
The 103 official martyrs of Korea are noted in our lobby by the east door. On the bulletin board nearby there are images of the four U.S. women religious murdered by a death squad in El Salvador in 1980. Archbishop Oscar Romero’s image is on the cross next to this pulpit.
These are a few of the modern martyrs we remember in a special way here at St. Mary.

Today I wish to also honor the memory of eight holy martyrs whose anniversary we shall have on Monday. They are the six Jesuit priests and their two coworkers who were brutally murdered in San Salvador on November 16, 1989, twenty years ago.
At the University of Central America, a museum provides detailed accounts and grisly evidence of their assassination at the hands of the Salvadoran soldiers.

The Jesuits were aroused from sleep by 26 members of an elite military force at 2 am. They were shot with U.S. M-16 rifles, some in their bedrooms, others in the small yard outside their residence.
A mother and her 16-year old daughter who were in room next to the kitchen were also killed. The mother was a cook and housekeeper for the priests.
In a crudely symbolic expression of the soldiers contempt, the women were shot in the genitals, and some priests’ brains were scooped out of shattered skulls and placed next to their bodies. It was a macho contempt for women’s bodies and deep hatred for the priests who had been accused of being the brains behind the insurgency. The scene noted in photos in the museum could not be more gruesome.

The priests were members of the faculty at the University. They had also been leaders of the effort to seek a negotiated end to the 11-year old war instead of a military one.
The priests had especially enraged the military leaders because they had been systemically documenting the social injustice in the country and keeping count of the victims of the death squads.

They have been buried in the chapel about 40 feet away from the place where their bodies were found.
There is also a beautiful memorial of these eight martyrs in the blood-soaked yard where the assassins left their bodies. Obdulio, the gardener, planted a rose bush for each martyr and surrounded them with a tropical garden.
The two yellow rose bushes are symbols of Elba, his wife, and Celina, his daughter, whose bodies were found in the room next to the kitchen. Surrounding the two yellow rose bushes are six red rose bushes in honor of the six priests. Tomorrow, November 16th, we remember them and thank God for their witness to God’s justice and love.

There was great public outrage at the news of the what took place at the Jesuit residence in San Salavdor. The U.S. Congress established an official investigation of the causes of this brutal murder of the eight innocent people.
Representative Joseph Moakley of Massachusetts was appointed the leader of the investigation. His report, the result of thorough research and many interviews, was eye-openng and shocking to many.
His report noted that the military had been intimidating the Jesuits for months before their murder. Because of their efforts to be a voice for the voiceless victims of official violence, the Jesuit university had been bombed 16 times, including a bombing of their residence and another of the university radio station.

It also noted that the U.S. government had supported the military government with $5 billion during the 1980s. U.S. support included the supply of military equipment and the training of special military forces. 19 of the 26 soldiers who participated in the killings at the university had received training at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. They were members of the infamous Atlacatl Battalion.

On the first anniversary of their martyrdom, November 1990, a demonstration was held at the School of the Americas led by Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois. It was a memorial service for the eight martyrs and also the approximately 75,000 victims of the war. It was also a protest of the U.S. support of that war. The demonstration at the gates of the School of the Americas has been held every November since.
I am proud of some of my friends, a few of our parishioners (including Kathy Fries) and a number of local activitists who have attended this annual demonstration in years past. I attended a couple of years ago. It was a great experience to be part of the some twenty thousand who remember the martyrs and give voice to justice. I am pleased that next weekend our own Sister Julia will be there with several members of her community, the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary.

Occasionally, I have heard objections by people, including Catholics, about “activism” of this sort as if it were a form of heresy. By activism I mean involvement, sometimes in a public way, in works of mercy, justice and peace.
Jesus certainly was an activist who actively opposed the corrupt religious establishment of his day, and harsh and unjust government. Very openly he showed his preferential option for the poor.
The saints I named at the beginning of this homily: Mary, Francis, Vincent, Teresa, Dorothy, and John were all activists. The Jesuits martyrs whom we here honor were all activists.
We are called to activism, whether in teaching peace, housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, or shouting out gospel justice from the streets. These are works of mercy.

On this anniversary of the Eight Martyrs of November 16th, we remember their bloody witness to Jesus’ loving martyrdom and we pray for courageous faith.
Tomorrow, to mark the 20th anniversary of their murder, Mauricio Funes, the president of El Salvador will present the nation’s highest award, the National Order of José Matias Delgado, to the eight victims as a “public act of atonement” for mistakes by past Salvadoran governments.

Today’s first reading from the Prophet Daniel concludes: “Those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.”
Our lives have been brightened by martyrs like these Eight, who shine like stars that show us the way of justice. In dying they show us how to live faithfully.