The Church Serves Personal, Communal, and Transcendent Liberation

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Sunday, 23 March, 1980

The Mass readings are:

Isaiah 43:16-21
Philippians 3:8-14
John 8:1-11

Words from the homily:
"I would like to make an appeal especially to the men of the army, and concretely to the
National Guard, the police, and the troops. Brothers, you are of part of our own people. You are killing your own brother and sister campesinos, and against any order a man may give to kill, God’s law must prevail: «You shall not kill!» (Ex 20:13).

No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to observe an immoral law. It is time now for you to reclaim your conscience and to obey your conscience rather than the command to sin. The church defends the rights of God, the law of God, and the dignity of the human person and therefore cannot remain silent before such great abominations. We want the government to understand well that the reforms are worth nothing if they are stained with so much blood. In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering people, whose laments rise up each day more tumultuously toward heaven, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression."
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 The Church Serves Personal, Communal, and Transcendent Liberation
 La Iglesia, un servicio de liberacion personal, comunitaria, trascendente

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