24th March 1980 Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador. On 23rd May this year he will be beatified in that same city. Bishop Untener of Saginaw, Michigan composed this meditation/poem in the spirit of the Archbishop, although it is often attributed to the Archbishop himself…

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No programme accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.