A True Conversion to God

Always remember that there is no conversion to God if there is no conversion to the oppressed. - -Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J

On the weekend that we celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, we bring attention to the writings of a kindred spirit: Jesuit Father Ignacio Ellacuría, who often wrote about poverty and inequality in El Salvador. He and five other Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her daughter were massacred by members of an elite unit of the Salvadoran military at their residence on the grounds of the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas in November, 1989. Here is a quote from Father Ellacuría.  

Today in our situation the authenticity of the people of God goes by way of poverty and justice: they are the touchstone of the truth of the faith that is professed and of the genuineness of life as it is lived out.

Poverty, which involves incarnating all our efforts and incarnating ourselves in the reality of the oppressed majorities, and that will necessarily entail a voluntary impoverishment and abnegation on the part of those who wield power. 

Justice, which involves giving to the people what belongs to the people and struggling to uproot injustice and exploitation, and to establish a new earth, wherein the life of the new human may be possible.