By Desmond de Sousa CSsR

Panaji, Goa (SAR NEWS) -- The Holy Week signifies the celebration of the most fundamental aspects of the most profound mystery of Christian faith. The celebration consists of Maundy or Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.
It encapsules the institution of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Christian Priesthood (Maundy Thursday) that extends and continues the ‘dangerous memory’ of Jesus of Nazareth who laid down his life that others may have life. The actual suffering and death on the Cross of Jesus of Nazareth (Good Friday), and his burial in a tomb on Holy Saturday. His triumphal victory over the power of evil symbolized by suffering and death, by his glorious Resurrection to a new and everlasting life. The Risen Lord shares with us his victorious new life through baptism, the Mass and the other sacraments that the Church regularly celebrates.
This year by happy coincidence, March 24 falls on Maundy Thursday, the day for the distribution of maundy money – silver coins minted especially for the English King to distribute to the poor. In postcolonial times it is called Holy Thursday, the first of the three days before the Easter Sunday celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Archbishop Oscar Romero: Socially Committed Saint?
Every year March 24 is observed as a day of prayer and fasting to commemorate the “dangerous memory” of martyrs in the cause of Gospel justice. It was the day in 1980, when 62-year-old Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, was assassinated while celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in a hospital chapel of the capital San Salvador.
This year to mark the 25th anniversary of his martyrdom, Pax Christi International organized a Mass celebrated by Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah of Jerusalem who is president of Pax Christi International. The patriarch said in his homily “Archbishop Romero had the courage to speak strong words, and was accused of playing politics, but he preached the Gospel." He repeated Archbishop Romero's words: "The death of a martyr is a resurrection.” Romero, in the face of so many accusations, said: 'If they kill me, I will resurrect in the Salvadoran people." "This was verified," said the patriarch.
The Salvadoran prelate's process of beatification, which has concluded its diocesan phase, has been in Rome since 1997. It will be reopened within the next few days, revealed the postulator, Bishop Vincenzo Paglia . "The delicate nature of this cause has called for particular attention," the postulator told the press. "We must not forget that it is a process on martyrdom and not on virtues.
Therefore, it is essential to demonstrate that Romero was killed out of hatred for the faith and not for political reasons. The postulation has carried out specific investigations on this point. Obviously, it cannot be said that political motivations were totally absent in the one who shot him.
But from the point of view of Romero, it is already clear that his commitment was exclusively ecclesial." When Pope John Paul II visited El Salvador, he knelt in silent prayer at the grave of Archbishop Oscar Romero. He was concerned about the spread of the politicization of the Catholic faith by the Sandinistas in next door Nicaragua, where four priests held positions as ministers in the government. But times are changing.

Pope John Paul II Sees The Need For Socially Committed Saints Today
Pope John Paul II chose the occasion of the publication of the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” at the end of October 2004, to announce that he believes the time has come for saints who are committed in social life. “It is the hour of a new season of social holiness, of saints who manifest to the world and in the world the perennial and inexhaustible fecundity of the Gospel.” He called the Compendium, “An instrument capable of helping Christians in their daily commitment to make the world more just, in the evangelical perspective of an authentic, humanism.”
The Pope emphasized that, “The social doctrine of the Church is an essential part of the Christian message and must be better known, totally disseminated and witnessed with constant and coherent pastoral action.”
The Pope said, “At a time like ours, marked by the globalization of the social question, the Church invites all to recognize and affirm the centrality of the human person in all realms and in all manifestations of a social character. The social doctrine of the Church implores you especially, lay Christians, to live in society as witnesses of Christ the Saviour, that opens horizons of charity. This is the hour of charity, including social and political charity, able to illuminate with the grace of the Gospel, human realities of work, economy, politics, building paths of peace, justice and friendship among peoples.”

Socially Committed Martyrs Of The Indian Church
In his oration delivered at the samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi, where he almost canonized him, Pope John Paul II announced, “From this place, which belongs in a sense to the history of the entire human family, I wish to reaffirm the conviction that with the help of God, the construction of a better world, in peace and justice, lies within the reach of human beings.” (Feb.1, 1986 at Rajghat, New Delhi)
The Church in India has her own socially committed martyrs. Sister Rani Maria, was dragged out of the bus and brutally murdered by hired killers of the moneylenders she was liberating the people from, in the presence of a bus load of terror stricken passengers in the diocese of Indore, Madhya Pradesh in 1995. The bishop of the diocese has initiated her cause for canonization.
Father T.A. Thomas was beheaded in September 1997. When he was taken away by an armed gang at the service of the vested interests that he was opposing on behalf of the people, the poor who had known him in their struggle for dignity and survival cried, “Please do not harm him, he is our man.” Between 1978 and 1997 more than10 priests and nuns were martyred and many more manhandled, brutalized, murdered and raped.
The memory of martyrs who paid the price of their lives for the sake of others, especially the powerless, is a ‘dangerous memory’ disturbing our stereotypes and biases. The response that is worthy of the memory that we celebrate is to be prepared to stand for the values and the causes the martyrs stood for, and for the people they stood with, and pay our price.
“The blood of the martyrs,” wrote Jesuit Jon Sobrino after the martyrdom of five of his Jesuit companions, their cook and her daughter, in El Salvador, “their unconditional love, gives us the courage and strength we shall need if we are to keep up our courage along the hard pathways of life and faith.”

Theme for March 24, 2005:“Bread Broken For Others”:
The theme for this year, announced by the Vatican is "Bread Broken for Others." This year, the day is in memory particularly, of the 15 missionaries killed in 2004 while carrying out their work.
A statement prepared by the Pontifical Mission Societies invites parishes, religious communities, seminaries, mission groups, youth groups and all people of good will to celebrate the day. The sick are encouraged to offer their suffering in memory of the missionary martyrs and for the spread of the Gospel.
Everyone is encouraged to visit a place of suffering -- for example, hospitals, homes for the elderly -- and to comfort the afflicted.