Holy Week is a call to follow Christ's austerities

Holy Week is a call to follow Christ's austerities,

the only legitimate violence,

the violence that he does to himself

and that he invites us to do to ourselves:

"Let those who would follow me deny themselves,"

be violent to themselves,

repress in themselves the outbursts of pride,

kill in their heart the outbursts of greed,

of avarice, of conceit, of arrogance.

Let them kill it in their heart.

This is what must be killed,

this is the violence that must be done,

so that out of it a new person may arise,

the only one who can build

a new civilization: .

a civilization of love.

Oscar Romero

March 19, 1978



The Violence of Love