The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báez, called – in his Christmas message – to be “respectful of human dignity” and not to make of power and money “idols that enslave and demand human sacrifices.” Words that refer to the serious violation of human rights in Nicaragua, which has left death, jail and exile in the last three years.
“Political despotism, the exploitation of the weakest and the cruelty that multiplies the victims is absurd and inhuman,” the bishop warned. “Our God is human and has revealed himself human. For this reason, our faith imposes on us the demand to make ourselves more human and respectful of people’s dignity every day. Only in this way will we be more similar to the living God who has wanted to share our human condition ”, he added.
Monsignor Báez’s homily, from his exile in Miami, United States, comes at a time when relatives of political prisoners have denounced that they are being persecuted and threatened by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, for daring to claim the elemental rights of your imprisoned relatives.
The Catholic priest urged his parishioners not to feel alone or without a future, since – he valued – “no human failure is definitive, nor any irreparable error” and added that “with the human birth of God everything is reborn. Fear becomes humble courage and the path of brotherhood, failure means a new beginning, illness becomes patience to allow oneself to be cared for, sin an occasion to welcome divine mercy ”.
“Let’s learn to love each other”
The nativity of Christ shows that “we are all brothers in our fragile humanity: the sinners we condemn, the weak people we would like to exclude, the elderly we consider useless, the immigrants who hinder us. God was born and came for everyone. Let’s learn to love each other ”, expressed the bishop.
Christ “teaches us to welcome each human being as a brother to love and not as a rival or an enemy to defeat and subdue,” emphasized Báez. “He wanted to communicate to us the hope that no night in this world is forever. Let’s not despair, “he added.
He also called on the congregation to “accept their own smallness with serenity and simplicity” and criticized those who pretend to be “omnipotent”, since “we do not know and we can not do everything.”
“The eternal Word was born poor to also show us God’s love for the poor and teach us to welcome it in the least, in those who cry or live in solitude, in those who are deprived of freedom or trampled on their dignity. Let us not despise or ignore God, despising and ignoring the poor ”, he concluded.
The cardinal Leopoldo Brenes also advocated this Friday, December 24, for migrants and prisoners, at the mass dedicated to Christmas, in a day that included the distribution of toys among the children.
“How can we not remember today and be close to those families who have lost a loved one, that one of their members has had to leave, that they have emigrated. How not to be close to those families who have a member, a relative, a friend, deprived of liberty, “said the cardinal during the homily held at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua.
