The Prayer of a Hero

This past week was the anniversary of the death of a hero of mine some 30 years ago. To the average person, you may not even recognize his name or know what he did. Yet, 30 years ago this man was assassinated while delivering Mass in San Salvador. He was a man who lived his final years for the poor and the outcast while being a voice for those who had lost theirs. He loved like Jesus in a setting where the slogan, "Be a patriot.Kill a priest." was circulating. His name was Archbishop Oscar Romero. And almost 20 years ago God used his story to spark something in me about the poor. Jesus used his life to make me start to wonder if maybe to "waste" my life on behalf of the poor would not be "wasting" my life at all. Jesus used this man's ministry and death to help me consider the depth of His compassion, love, mercy and justice for the forgotten. Here is a prayer of Oscar Romero that I happened across on my friend Brad Culver's blog. Check out Romero's prayer below...and Brad's blog at http://livingwaterfromanancientwell.blogspot.com/ .

A Prayer of Oscar Romero (1917 - 1980)
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.