Creation, Fall, Redemption applied on Romero Movie
The Romero movie focused on Oscar Romero as
the main character. The movie took place in El Salvador where the military
elites oppressed the poor and to anyone who rebelled. The plot started with
Romero being promoted to become the archbishop in one of the churches in El
Salvador. At first, Romero was hesitant because he was a conservative person
and felt that he was not the right person to be an advocate of the people. This
was exactly what the other Vatican priests thought, too. The board of priests
thought that Romero would not get involved in any political issues. However,
later at the end of the movie, Romero developed to become the voice for the
people. Utilizing his sermon, he used that time to encourage the government to
bring freedom and justice toward the citizens. The end of Romero’s life
happened when he was murdered during his sermon. Personally, I didn’t really
like the movie. Even though I like how the movie showed the audience of Romero
from being a “regular” priest into an “inspirational” priest, and the
sufferings of both the El Salvador residents and Romero in dealing with the
harsh government, I feel like the movie should have had a better ending. Maybe
it could give a resolution of the people and not just the murder of Romero. The
ending made me feel restless about the condition of El Salvador since they have
lost their archbishop.
Applying
creation and fall into the movie, I find that the world in El Salvador was
tragic. God created the world in His own image, which means everything is good,
including the people in El Salvador. In some parts of the movie, it showed how
beautiful the natural landscape in El Salvador was. The local people there
looked cheerful, happy, and good. This showed how the general nature of people was
because they were created good by God. In Genesis 1: 31a: “God saw all that he
had made, and it was very good.” There was no exception of goodness in the
people of El Salvador, including the savage government. Nevertheless, fall
entered the world causing brokenness to the creation. “Therefore, just as sin
entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death
came to all people because all sinned--” (Romans 5: 12). Fall had damaged the
law causing the absence of justice, human rights, and many other good things
which instead brought chaos and oppression to the people of El Salvador. The
fall, or sin, is the central problem that leads humans to conduct all the bad
things. As shown in the Romero movie, the government was what is evil. They
tried to alter the law and democracy that should have been happening. They were
what is evil because they placed oppression to the poor, and exercised military
dictatorship, as well as brought about absence of human rights to the local
people of El Salvador. Things were out of control and there was no more hope of
being free and happy for the people. Indeed, the movie showed a tragic world in
El Salvador. A world made with all the goodness and the best things are
substituted with a bad world full of oppression.
El
Salvador was a tragic place. We find Oscar Romero positioned as the archbishop
there. The status archbishop meant that he had a high authority over the people
of the church. Even though he was expected to be the advocate for the tortured
citizens, Romero could have had the choice to stay put and not do anything
about the citizens. He could have “played-safe” just like what the other
priests wanted and stayed in his comfort zone. However, Romero didn’t do any of
that. He chose to come directly into the local people and became one of them.
In the nearly last part of the movie, Romero was even tortured and went to jail
because he had chosen to do so. With the power as an archbishop, he could have
chosen to be free. Therefore, just like the concept of cruciform kingdom,
Romero acted as a servant and embodies self- sacrifice. Like Jesus when He
comes to the earth, He didn’t come as a king with all those extravagant or
lavish parties like the world would expect from a king. Jesus came in a humble
manner, born from a ‘regular’ family, and live His life to serve others. Jesus
became the human who was tortured and crucified. It was not the kind of life
that a king should undergo, but Jesus showed that a Christian life isn’t all
about the good things. It is also about being a servant and self- sacrifice.
And Romero showed us that cruciform kingdom example.
In
conclusion, this movie showed the example of living a life of being in a cruciform
kingdom where we, individually and communally, should embody ourselves to be a
servant of God. “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your
freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another”
(Galatians 5:13). Serving one another could include also by being an individual
who is not racist, not seeing the social status, and applying human rights.
Communally, as a Christians, we work also as a part to preach the good news to
everyone, including the poor, the weak, and the lost. Hence, every single part
of the world, including El Salvador, is a place where Christians should spread
the gospel and apply them so that they will be “disciples of all nations”
(Matthew 28: 19).
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