The Violence of Love

We have never preached violence,
except the violence of love,
which left Christ nailed to a cross,
the violence that we must each do to ourselves
to overcome our selfishness
and such cruel inequalities among us.
The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword,
the violence of hatred.
It is the violence of love,
of brotherhood,
the violence that wills to beat weapons
into sickles for work.

~~Oscar Romero

Peace Prayers: Meditations, Affirmations, Invocations, Poems, and Prayers for Peace. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992. 85.