This is what we are about

Words from one of my personal heroes, Archbishop Oscar Romero. Minister of the gospel, advocate for the oppressed of El Salvador, and finally, martyr added to the saints in heaven.

It helps, now and then, to step

back and take a long view.

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.

-Oscar Romero