35th Anniversary of Death of Servant of God Father Stanley Rother

Published: July 27, 2016

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily while on a pilgrimage to Guatemala to mark the 35th anniversary of death of servant of God Father Stanley Rother in Cerro de Oro on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. It is based on the following readings: Isaiah 61:1-3a, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 4:12-19 and Matthew 13:44-46.

Bishop Taylor

I met Father Rother only once, but my life has been intertwined with his ever since. I met him when he returned to Oklahoma for the ordination of his cousin, Don Wolf, on May 16, 1981, a little more than two months before his death.

We spoke briefly. He was quiet and worried about the things that were happening here in Cerro de Oro and in Santiago Atitlán. I attended his funeral in Oklahoma City, and then a few months later, I received into my rectory, at Sacred Heart Parish in Oklahoma City, the only eyewitness to the events of Father Rother's death.

He stayed with me until I found a family in the parish with whom he could live. I visited your parish and Father McSherry three times in the 1980s, and presided at all the Holy Week Masses here at Cerro de Oro from Palm Sunday to Easter in 1989 — one of my fondest memories.

Later, I interviewed many people as part of the cause of canonization of Father Rother starting in 2007. From all of this, I think I know Father Rother pretty well and I can tell you, using the images in today's Gospel, that Father Rother found his treasure buried in a field by Lake Atitlán and he sold everything he had to buy that field.

He had been searching for a fine pearl and when he found it here in Guatemala, he gave everything he had to acquire it. Jesus was that great treasure and it was among you that he found his role in God's plan. He gave his heart to Jesus and to you, and you gave your hearts to him.  

In the Gospel you just heard, Jesus says that this is how it must be for any of us who truly wants to share the life of the Kingdom of God, regarding which he makes two points:

1.) The kingdom is greater than we could possibly imagine — a treasure worth everything we have, a pearl worth sacrificing everything to acquire; and 2.) To share in this kingdom, we have to respond with all our heart and soul, with everything we have and are.

For Father Rother this meant leaving his family and friends, everything that was familiar, and coming to Guatemala. He gave his life to you for 13 years and then gave his life for you. In Father Rother's mind, you were a treasure worth dying for. Which is another way of saying that for him, Jesus — the Kingdom of God — was a treasure worth dying for.

As it also should be for us, even though for you and me this may mean something else. The sacrificial love with which I try to live my vocation as a priest and bishop, the sacrificial love with which you try to live your vocation as parents raising children, the sacrificial love with which young people consider what role God has for them in his plan.

But in every case it means entering into a deep relationship with Jesus and finding in him, and in the kingdom he came to establish, the greatest treasure in our life. And then placing ourselves fully into his hands.

Thirty-five years ago the Church was enduring severe persecution. More than a dozen priests were killed in Guatemala, many by death squads like Father Rother, as were hundreds of catechists and thousands of simple people who were innocent victims of the violence of those days, including many catechists and other victims here in Cerro de Oro and Santiago Atitlán.

At that time, there were those who sought to find treasure in the bloody field of war against the government and others in the bloody field of military repression and even genocide, but there was no treasure to be found in those fields — only hatred, fear and destruction.

The only treasure available is in the field of justice and peace, in the field of respect and mercy, in the field of forgiveness, reconciliation and — if necessary — non-violent resistance to evil. In other words, the only treasure available is in the field of the Kingdom of God, for which Father Rother gave his life.

This kingdom is greater than we could possibly imagine and certainly greater than any human government even under the best of circumstances. And it is a treasure that — like Father Rother — we too must be willing to sacrifice everything to acquire.