The El Salvador Martyrs
In 1980, Ita Ford, a Maryknoll sister serving in El Salvador wrote a letter to her 16-year-old niece and godchild, Jennifer Ford. In it, she said:
“I hope you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you. Something worth living for – maybe even worth dying for, something that energizes you, enables you to keep moving ahead.
”I can’t tell you what it might be – that’s for you to find, to choose, to love. I can just encourage you to start looking and support you in the search.”
Three months later on December 2, Sister Ita and three other women missionaries were killed by a death squad in El Salvador
This small section of Luke’s Gospel has what would be called a “very high theology” which emphasizes the divinity of Jesus
In the story of his birth, the angel Gabriel said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you…..Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”
Make no mistake about it. The child born in Bethlehem is not simply a great prophet…..not simply a miracle-worker…..not simply someone specially chosen by God. The child born in Bethlehem is the Son of God.
In our relationship with Jesus, we always have to balance intimacy and reverence. Jesus did not come for us simply to look at him in distant adoration. He came so that we could join intimately with him and share in his own relationship with the Father.
On the other hand, we need to be reverent. We need to be aware of who it is we are relating to so closely…..whom we are joining with in the Eucharistic prayer…..whom we are receiving when we take the Bread and the Cup.
·Intimacy and reverence. I could work on both right now as I spend some time with the Lord.