🔥 Resurrection as Resistance: How Oscar Romero's Spirituality Guides Border Justice in Trump's America

A spiritual framework for combating dehumanizing policies at the U.S.-Mexico border

Apr 28, 2025

😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾

Oscar Romero was a brave church leader who stood up for poor people in El Salvador, even though it put him in danger. ✊🙏 He believed that the power that brought Jesus back to life is also working in our world today whenever people stand up for what's right. 🌍✝️ This post explains how his ideas can help us understand what's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border today. 🇺🇸🇲🇽 When communities work together to help immigrants, protect families from being separated, and fight unfair laws, they're part of this same power that brings hope and new life even in difficult situations. 🤝❤️✨

🗝️ Takeaways

🔄 Romero understood resurrection not as a future event but as a present reality transforming communities and history
👥 Collective resistance against border militarization and family separation embodies resurrection power in action
👁️ Learning to "see with resurrection eyes" judges inhumane immigration policies by eternal standards of human dignity
🌱 The "already-not-yet" nature of resurrection creates space for both acknowledging suffering and maintaining unquenchable hope
🛠️ Practical actions like humanitarian aid, community organizing, and policy advocacy participate in resurrection transformation
🌉 Supporting affected communities and amplifying marginalized voices continues Romero's legacy in today's borderlands

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Resurrection as Resistance: Óscar Romero's Spirituality in the Trump Era Borderlands

St. Oscar Romero, prophet and martyr – Pax Christi USA

"No one can quench the life that Christ has resurrected. Neither death, nor all the banners of death and hatred raised against him and against his church can prevail. He is victorious!" — Óscar Romero, the day before his assassination

The Spirituality of Resurrection in Borderland Struggles

In the borderlands of Southern Arizona, where life and death intertwine like the roots of desert plants seeking water beneath parched soil, the spirituality of Saint Óscar Romero offers more than theological reflection—it provides a framework for resistance and hope.

As I witness migrant families separated, Indigenous sacred sites desecrated for border wall construction, and communities living under the shadow of militarized enforcement, Romero's understanding of resurrection speaks directly to our current reality. His vision wasn't of resurrection as merely a distant promise, but as a present power transforming history now.

According to a recent article in America Magazine by theologian Matthew Ashley, Romero's spirituality of resurrection can be understood through four interconnected dimensions that offer profound guidance for our struggles today:1

Resurrection as an act and fruit of the Spirit, even now
Resurrection as a communal, historical reality
Resurrection as a process of ongoing conversion
Resurrection as an eschatological event

Let's explore how each dimension speaks to our borderland resistance.

The Spirit of Resurrection in the Here and Now

For Romero, resurrection wasn't just something that happened to Jesus or something that will happen to us after death. It's a present reality empowered by the same Spirit that raised Christ.

"The Holy Spirit who guided Christ and gave divine value to his death on the cross, this Spirit who was the power of God raising Jesus from the dead, is the same Spirit who is given to all of us.... Even though that Spirit now seems invisible, even though we get old and get sick and die and are buried, still, Saint Paul tells us, we carry within us the seeds of resurrection."

In our borderlands, this means recognizing that despite policies designed to dehumanize and crush spirits—from family separation to "Remain in Mexico"—the seeds of resurrection are already present in every act of solidarity, every water drop left for migrants, every legal challenge to injustice.

The Trump administration's continuation and escalation of anti-immigrant policies isn't the final word. The Spirit that raises the dead is already at work in our communities, reanimating what oppressive systems try to destroy.

Resurrection as Communal and Historical Transformation

Perhaps what speaks most powerfully to our situation is Romero's insistence that resurrection is communal rather than individual. Ashley notes, "the first-person singular pronoun is virtually absent from Romero's preaching on resurrection.”

For Romero, resurrection happens in community and transforms history itself:

"God keeps on saving in history" is a frequent refrain in Romero's preaching. But this means that resurrection is a reality for history as well... "The God of our impoverished peoples is also constructing the history of salvation, with El Salvador's history and not with fake, made-up histories."

This understanding reframes our resistance to border militarization and xenophobia. When communities organize to protect immigrants from ICE raids, when Indigenous water protectors defend sacred sites, when legal advocates challenge unconstitutional detention—these aren't just noble but ultimately futile efforts against overwhelming power. They are participating in the resurrection transformation of history itself.

These collective acts of solidarity already sprout the seeds of a new reality, even when the full harvest seems distant.

Ongoing Conversion: Seeing with Resurrection Eyes

The third dimension of Romero's resurrection spirituality involves ongoing conversion—a transformation in how we see and understand reality.

Ashley explains how Romero used the metaphor of a sailor in a storm who was told to "look upward" when he became dizzy from the storm-tossed seas. Romero applied this to El Salvador's violent reality:

"This story comes to mind because most of our fellow Salvadorans find themselves in the same situation; they see the stormy seas of our history and feel confused and almost hopeless. Quite opportunely, then, the liturgical year now offers us a warning cry in the midst of these historical circumstances: 'Look upward, it's the feast of the Ascension.'"

But crucially, this "looking upward" isn't escapism:

"In a word, we are called to celebrate the ascension of the Lord at a time when everything here below on earth tells us not to flee—for true Christians never flee—but rather to incarnate ourselves even more in history, but always with the perspective of heaven. Christians judge history by the criteria of eternity."

This is precisely what we need in our borderlands resistance. Looking upward doesn't mean accepting injustice or waiting for heavenly salvation. It means seeing our current struggles through resurrection eyes that judge the policies of family separation, detention, and deportation by eternal criteria of human dignity and divine justice.

This resurrection vision led Romero to his profound insight: "Gloria Dei, Vivens Pauper"—"The glory of God is the poor person, fully alive". When we truly see with resurrection eyes, we recognize God's glory not in power and domination, but in the dignity and flourishing of those most marginalized.

The Trump administration's border policies fail this eternal judgment utterly.

The "Already-Not-Yet" Reality of Resurrection Hope

Finally, Romero understood resurrection as an "already-not-yet" reality—present now but not yet fully realized. Ashley explains:

"Romero never tired in his homilies of insisting that resurrection is present now, but never fully, never definitively... Resurrection, for Romero, is an already-not-yet reality. It is already here; we can 'live as people already risen' now, in the power of the Spirit, in union with the risen Christ, in continual conversion and 're-envisioning our reality.' Yet its 'not-yet-ness' is a constitutive part of its 'being here.'"

This tension explains the deep pain we feel at ongoing injustice and the unquenchable hope sustaining our resistance. The "not-yet" aspect acknowledges the real suffering at the border, the families still separated, the asylum seekers still in danger. But the "already" dimension recognizes that resurrection power is already breaking through these death-dealing systems.

Romero famously declared before his death, "If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador"2. His resurrection vision became prophetic reality as his martyrdom sparked rather than extinguished the movements for justice.

Similarly, when migrants die in the desert, when children suffer in detention, when Indigenous sacred sites are destroyed—these deaths do not have the final word. Resurrection means that these lives rise again in our communal memory and collective struggle for justice.

Trump, Borders, and Resurrection Reality

Since his return to the presidency this January, Donald Trump has doubled down on his border rhetoric and policies. We've seen increased ICE raids, continued family separations, and renewed threats to end DACA protections.3 The administration has resumed border wall construction through sacred Indigenous lands and environmentally sensitive areas.

Just this month, new reports have emerged about deplorable conditions in detention facilities with overcrowding, lack of medical care, and inhumane treatment. These policies emanate from a worldview that sees certain lives as dispensable and certain people as less than human.

Romero's resurrection spirituality offers a radical alternative to this worldview. It insists that no human life is dispensable, proclaims that systems of death do not have the final word, and recognizes God's glory not in power and domination but in the flourishing of the most vulnerable.

As Ashley points out, this resurrection spirituality explains the paradoxical joy that Romero maintained even as violence escalated around him:

"I think this explains the deep joy that you can see in so many of Romero's portraits, a joy that increased even as he was painfully aware that the country was collapsing into civil war around him, a collapse that would be accelerated by the assassination he knew was coming."

Romero told a friend near the end of his life, "I don't want to die. At least not now. I've never had so much love for life.” Yet he faced his death with serenity because he had already lived in resurrection reality.

Living Resurrection Resistance in the Borderlands

What does it mean for us to embody Romero's resurrection spirituality in our borderland context today?

First, it means recognizing that the Spirit of resurrection is already at work in our communities. Every mutual aid network supporting immigrants, every legal challenge to unconstitutional detention, every protest against border wall construction aren't just noble efforts; they're manifestations of resurrection power in history.

Second, it means understanding our struggles communally rather than individually. Resurrection happens in and through community. When we organize together, share resources, and protect each other, we participate in resurrection reality.

Third, it means developing a resurrection vision that judges current border policies by eternal criteria. When we truly see with resurrection eyes, we recognize that policies treating human beings as disposable fundamentally contradict God's glory revealed in the dignity of every person.

Finally, it means living in the tension of "already-not-yet" hope. We acknowledge the real suffering caused by unjust systems while maintaining unquenchable hope that these systems will not prevail.

A Note of Hope and Invitation to Action

The day before his assassination, Romero proclaimed, "No one can quench the life that Christ has resurrected. Neither death, nor all the banners of death and hatred raised against him and against his church can prevail. He is victorious!"

This declaration wasn't naive optimism but deep resurrection faith. The facts of history have proven him right—his life and message continue to inspire movements for justice decades after his martyrdom.

Similarly, the banners of death and hatred raised at our borders today will not ultimately prevail. Resurrection power is already at work in our communities, transforming history toward justice.

Here are ways to participate in this resurrection reality:

Support organizations providing humanitarian aid to migrants, such as No More Deaths or Border Action Network
Join local efforts to protect immigrant communities from ICE raids
Advocate for policy changes that recognize the dignity of all people regardless of immigration status
Amplify the voices and leadership of directly impacted communities
Build relationships across borders that humanize rather than demonize

Your support of Three Sonorans Substack helps us continue documenting these struggles and sharing these perspectives from the borderlands. Together, we are living out resurrection resistance in the face of death-dealing systems.

¿Y tú, cómo vives la resurrección en tu comunidad? ¿Cómo podemos mantener la esperanza mientras luchamos contra sistemas de muerte? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.