The Last Sermon (For Archbishop Oscar Romero)

The Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, died performing Mass on March 24, 1980, the day after preaching a provocative final sermon (text available here) exposing the state violence in El Salvador at the time. He is remembered in the Anglican Church calendar today and so is the subject of today’s poem.

The Last Sermon

The day before he died he stood

Before the soldiers, pled with them

As men, as Christians, to put down

Their weapons, to ignore all who

Commanded them to kill when God

Had set a higher, firmer law.

He took his sword and sharpened it

Against the whetstone of their pain.

The Word he wielded cut straight through

The lies, hypocrisy and claims

Of ignorance, attempts to hide

Behind complacent ritual.

And with the violence of love,

He took his sword and pierced the shame

Of their complicity and cried

The cry of the kingdom’s deep pain,

A father’s cry, a nation’s cry

Of longing to be whole again.

And down he went; the servant fell,

The violence of his love matched with

The violent backlash of mad hate,

Of systems which conspired with Hell

To hide the Bride of Christ within

A vacuum and a prison cell.