Rutilio Grande, SJ, would not make a good mystery novel or film. Suspense, yes, but not mystery, except in the sense of deep faith insight. The work explicitly covers only the years 1970 (publication of the first article) to 1977 (the year of Grande's death). Yet the horizon spans the breadth of the gospel, the history of the church's social doctrine, and the extent of impoverishment and oppression in El Salvador and its colonized neighbors.

Father Thomas M. Kelly, as editor, translator, and annotator, uses the respected model of See-Judge-Act to draw seven of Grande's varied writings into a unified whole centered on evangelization. The first chapter, initially published in a journal of the University of Central America, helps the reader “see” by providing background for the social reality of institutional and armed violence. The demand for agrarian reform stimulated much of the violence. The tension escalates in chapter 2. Father Grande preached on August 6, 1970, Feast of the Transfiguration, to a congregation comprising many church and military leaders. His homily challenged his listeners to “judge” what was happening, what each one's role might be in the reality, and by what choice one would enter into Christ's liberation and transfiguration in the current reality.

The next three chapters focus on the gospel in “action.” Here are the planning, implementation, and evaluation notes for a “grand missionary tour” throughout the rural parish of Aguilares. Grande was convinced that a living church of the gospel must grow out of the people, who and where they were, and so he acquainted himself with their strengths, needs, and potentials for leadership.

Grande's initiation of a formation program for lay leaders, involving seminarians as well, concretized for the rural people his theology of the Scriptures and the church. He developed the program with as much as for the people, who absorbed more than the words of the gospel. As they probed the deeper meaning of Jesus’ call, they learned leadership and social analysis; they became more articulate and, in the eyes of their opponents, more subversive.

Not surprisingly, chapters 6 and 7 point to the climax. Father Grande preached his last homily at a Mass protesting the expulsion of a native Colombian priest from his Salvadoran parish. A month later, Grande and two peasant companions, on the road from Aguilares to a feast day novena in the village of El Paisnal, were assassinated in the presence of three children riding with them. Chapter 7 consists of the homily preached at Grande's funeral by Oscar Romero, the newly named archbishop of San Salvador.

Father Kelly's annotation and contextualization of Rutilio Grande is invaluable. He introduces the entire volume historically and theologically. He situates each chapter and then follows Grande's own work with both commentary and discussion questions. This approach encourages the participative ecclesiology and evangelization that Grande himself practiced. The influence of Vatican II is obvious, and the use of Pope Francis’ writing, such as The Joy of the Gospel, demonstrates a contemporary perspective. The footnotes cite a wealth of sources related to the church's social doctrine and to liberation theology.

For whom would this volume have particular worth? College or university introductory courses on evangelization, ecclesiology, the Latin American church, or liberation theology can profit greatly. Perhaps even more, groups who explore the relevance of such faith and justice as practiced by Rutilio Grande and his friend and faith companion, Bl. Oscar Romero, will find it inspirational. A more academic treatment would require further investigation of the causes and unfolding of the lethal hostility that Grande and his parishioners faced.

Rutilio Grande, SJ: Homilies and Writings responds well to the hopes that Father Kelly voices in the introduction. One is to acquaint a population outside El Salvador with this man, otherwise little known, who was imbued with the principles of the Second Vatican Council. Another aspiration is that Grande's words will infuse the North American church with a more prophetic spirit to heal the unequal and divided conditions that prevail today. May these hopes be realized in even a small way through this solid and challenging volume. Many thanks, once more, to Thomas M. Kelly, editor, annotator, admirer.