John 10:11-18
I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep 7 that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."
Dear sisters and brothers
45 years have passed since that 24 March 1980 when Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot dead as he was about to begin the offertory of the Mass. He had just finished his homily. They wanted to silence him, so they killed him.
It is a memory dear to this basilica that, since 1982, wished to celebrate this witness to the faith, while not a few hostilities raged against him, even here in Rome, so that his voice would be silenced and he would not be heard. We are pleased to celebrate his martyrdom with the whole Church, with a feast day as vast as the Church.
And with emotion we await the beatification of Floribert, a son of the Community whose similar martyrdom motivation brings him close to Monsignor Romero. And we like to think of them close, this evening, side by side, with Floribert testifying to the affection that the Community has had for Monsignor Romero since the distant 1982.
We have always seen Monsignor Romero as a good shepherd who, following the example of Jesus, gave his life for his people. A choice that did not come from his character or predisposition, but from obedience to the Council. He said this clearly in a homily at the funeral of a priest killed by death squads.
Romero said that the Council asks all Christians to be martyrs, that is, to give their lives for the Lord and for the Gospel. He added: Not everyone, however, will have the honour of actually giving his or her blood, of being killed for the faith. God, however, asks of every believer the spirit of martyrdom. To give one's life,' continues Monsignor Romero, ’is not just to kill a person. To give one's life, to have a spirit of martyrdom, means to serve in duty, in service, in prayer, in the honest performance of duty. In this silence of daily life, to walk giving one's life. This is being a martyr.
Dear sisters and brothers,
this teaching touches us deeply. It was not easy for Romero to conform to Christ, the good shepherd who gives his life for the Gospel, but he did not hesitate to follow the example of Jesus. He had only been in office a few days as archbishop of the capital city, and death squads killed Father Rutilio Grande, a close friend of his.
That murder touched him deeply. He went to the village where Father Rutilio had been killed and stayed the whole night in the small church of that village, keeping vigil next to the tortured body of the priest, together with a crowd of peasants, disconsolate for the loss of their pastor.
Romero, he confided to some friends later, felt that night that he had to take Father Rutilio's place, even at the cost of his life. It was not an easy choice, but he felt it was a moral obligation.
In his diary, a month before his assassination, Romero wrote: ‘This week I have received serious threats. I fear for the weakness of the flesh, but I ask the Lord to give me serenity and perseverance. It costs me to accept a violent death, which in these circumstances is very probable. Jesus Christ assisted the martyrs and if necessary I will feel him closer in entrusting my last breath to him. But more precious than the moment of dying is that of entrusting my whole life to him, of living for him'.
Sisters and brothers,
Romero shines today in the heaven of the Church as a saint. He shines in the icon of the new martyrs, in St Bartholomew's Basilica, and his relic, his missal, stands here on the altar, to make him even closer to us.
His example sustains us, his path of holiness is also ours. They killed him so that his voice would no longer resound. Romero still speaks to the world today, and on this day all the new martyrs join him. A single body, a single choir, together they show the path of the Church at the beginning of this millennium.
The bond that unites Pope Francis to the canonisation of Romero becomes a sign of the times, a confirmation for us too, so that the Community continues to communicate the Gospel everywhere in the world, starting with the poorest. May Romero, the new martyrs, continue to accompany us, continue to support us, bless our work, our words, our love, and unite us with all the poor so that we may form the one, holy, family of God.
