Soon after becoming the Archbishop, Romero's close friend Father Rutillo Grande was assassinated by a paramilitary death squad. This had a dramatic effect on his life, and it changed him into a fierce activist against injustice. His transformation signifies the strength, power, and influence a person can have by making a strong effort to defend one's beliefs.
Father Grande's assassination resulted in Romero's determination to change the nature of the Church as the defender of the poor and to preach from the pulpit about the evils in El Salvador. As a gesture of solidarity, Romero refused to appear in any public ceremonies with any Army or Government personnel until the true nature of his friend's murder was brought out and true social change began.
Archbishop Romero soon became the voice and conscience of El Salvador.His fight for human rights led to his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On March 24, 1980 at 6:25 p.m. Romero was saying mass. As he prepared the Eucharist, a shot from the back of the church struck him in the chest, killing him instantly. Romero died, but his words, deeds, and actions remained in everybodies minds forever. He told the truth, but like many great leaders who have fought for truth, Romero was assassinated. He was thought to have died for his beliefs and therefore he was a martyr. When he died he died for his people just like Jesus.He lived to serve and not to be served.
When his friend died he suffered greatly. He received many death threats about his family and himself and he had to spend a lot of his life moving house and finding safe places for him and his family to stay. God was at the centre of his life and everthing he did revolved around God and what he wanted from humans. His life involved a lot of praying and sacrifice where he could become closer to God and put his complete trust in him.
He is inspired by Christ because Jesus also spoke out against the wrongs in the world. He must have gained his determination to change the nature of the church from God. Jesus was determined to show that he came to earth to forgive sinners and not good men by eating and talking to people like the tax collectors.
He told the truth and was assasinated.
Maximillian Kolbe
Maximillian Kolbe was a Polish monk who was born in Zdunska Wola. He joined the Conventual Franciscan Order at the age of 16. He suffered from tuberculosis in his youth and he was frail all his life. He was ordained at 24 and he later became a doctor of theology. He founded the "Militia Immaculatae" and when he published the magazine "The Knight of the Immaculate" which was anti-nazi he was thrown into Auchwitz.
In Auchwitz he said mass and sang to keep the spirit of his fellow prisoners up. One night two prisoners escaped, and the Germans as a punishment sentenced 10 other prisoners to death. As the prisoners were selected one of them shouted, "No, I've got a family you can't kill me!" At this Kolbe volunteered to take his place. The Germans accepted this and put the ten remaining people into a dark, damp cell without food or water until they died. Kolbe had sacrificed his life for this man. He was prepared to suffer starvation for a man that he didn't even know. This is a similar to Jesus as he gave his life and suffered greatly for many people he hadn't met before. While Kolbe was in there he kept praying and singing until he became to weak to do so. He lasted for so long that the Germans eventually gave him an injection of caustic soda to kill him because they wanted to put someone else in the cell. His body was burned in the ovens.
He died serving the sad people in Auchwitz by saying mass and singing. He must have got the strength to carry on from prayer. God must've been at the centre of his life also as he never moaned and he managed to serve people until the end.
He was beautified on 17 October 1971 by Pope Paul VI and canonised in 1982 by Pope John Paul II.
"The most deadly poison of our time is indifference.......and this happens, although the praise of God shows no limits........let us strive therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers"
Kolbe is inspired by Jesus in his bravery to speak out against evil. He must've known that publishing that document would get him into trouble but he still did it. He took someone elses place when they were about to be put to death. This relates to Jesus and Barabus because Jesus didn't have to be killed when he was, he could've waited until another day when a prisoner wasn't set free by tradition but he didn't and therefore saved Barabus' life. Also he put up with great suffering and while he was doing that he kept other peoples spirits up as well. When Jesus was on the cross suffering terribly he comforted the man on his right by promising him a path into heaven.
For Christians an inspirational life is a life which reflects the life of Christ and others. Our faith tradition teaches that through baptism and confirmation we become temples of the Holy Spirit and as such can achieve even greater things than Jesus did. Both of these characters in some way mirrored the life of Jesus. This tells us that they used Jesus' life as a guideline and that they were trying to be like Jesus.
