We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.
Oscar RomeroRead
The church would betray its own love for God and its fidelity to the gospel if it stopped being . . . a defender of the rights of the poor . . . a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society . . . that prepares the way for the true reign of God in history.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The church must advocate for the poor and social justice to remain true to its faith.
Oscar Romero emphasizes that for the church to remain faithful to its principles and to God, it must actively support the marginalized and strive for justice. By eschewing these duties, it would not only forsake its divine mission but also fail to contribute to a more equitable society reflective of God's reign on Earth.
Themes
ChurchJusticeSocietyPoorFaithGodRights
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon addressing social issues, a pastor might say this quote to encourage the congregation to engage in community service.
More from Oscar Romero
All quotes →Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be.
Oscar RomeroRead
When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises.
Oscar RomeroRead
Aspire not to have more, but to be more.
Oscar RomeroRead
A Christian's authenticity is show in difficult hours it is in difficult hours that the church grows in authenticity. Blest be God for this difficult hour in our archdiocese. Let us be worthy of it.
Oscar RomeroRead
It moves one's heart to think: Nine months before I was born there was a woman who loved me deeply. She did not know what I was going to be like, but she loved me because she carried me in her womb.
Oscar RomeroRead
Similar quotes
The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. It destroys communities and makes humanity impossible. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers... In winning our freedom, we will so appeal to you heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
The Indwelling of Christ by faithis to have Jesus Christ continually in one’s eye, a habitual sight of Him. I call it so because a man actually does not always think of Christ; but as a man does not look up to the sun continually, yet he sees the light of it. So you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sight and knowledge of Christ, so that at least a presence of Him accompanies you, which faith makes.
Thomas GoodwinRead
What I am is a heretic who's recanted and, thereby, in everyone's eyes, saved his soul. Everyone's eyes but one, who knows deep down inside that all he has saved is his skin.
Robert M. PirsigRead
In the Middle East, the conflict today is a matter of generations and not of cultures.
Shimon PeresRead
Let's build a country of opportunities, where everybody is equal before the law and where the rules of the game are honest and transparent, and the same for everyone.
Volodymyr ZelenskyRead
The death of a 20-year-old woman is intuitively worse than that of a 2-month-old girl, even though the baby has had less life. The 20-year-old has a much more developed personality than the infant, and has drawn upon the investment of others to begin as-yet-unfulfilled projects.
Ezekiel EmanuelRead