Based on the biblical parable of the “good Samaritan”, who helped a man who had been beaten by assailants, Monsignor Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, urged that compassion should be given to the most needy people and without expect nothing in return.
In his homily this Sunday, July 10, from the Santa Agatha Church in Miami, United States, the Catholic leader narrated the story of the Bible, pointing out that the same reality is lived today, where there are abusers and criminals, but that there are also “good samaritans”.
«We are all on the same road that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It is the path of life, in which there are still needy and mistreated people, indifferent people who pass by and do nothing, and also there are still bandits who rob, beat and hurt people, “he said.
In relation to the social, political and economic crisis that Nicaragua is experiencing and the recent expulsion of the Sisters of Charity, from the Order of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Monsignor Báez pointed out that “unfortunately, today we are writing a second part of this parable in some of our countries, dominated by inhuman and cruel regimes».
Alluding to the Ortega dictatorship, the bishop affirmed that “the same thieves and thugs who beat the wounded man in the parable, today mistreat, humiliate and they prevent him from doing charity to the good Samaritan and even expel him from the place where he intended to help».
The religious, who had to leave the country to protect his life, after constant threats from the Ortega regime, emphasized that with the actions carried out by Ortega “not only do they hurt people, making them suffer and taking away hope, but also they prevent those who help the poor from continuing to do so».
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“Today we see so many good Samaritans expelled and crying because they have been prevented from caring for the poorest,” he remarked, referring to the nuns who had to leave the country after the cancellation of the legal status of the Association of Missionary Sisters of Charity, an order created by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Ortega “wounds the heart of the gospel”
Báez stated that by expelling “the good Samaritans and leaving the poor helpless,” the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is wounding “the very heart of the gospel, where God and the poor are.”
He added that “leaving unprotected and abandoned the most needy people, the elderly alone, children, the poor and the sick, is not only a despicable and unworthy act, but a denial of God.”
In relation to the questionable religiosity of Ortega and Murillo, Monsignor expressed that “whoever acts like this cannot call himself a Christian, he has dehumanized himself and has expelled God from his heart.”
«There is no law, nor any human reasoning that justifies the powerful to prevent charity; worse still, if charity is prevented in order to later be able to disguise their selfish actions and ideological propaganda as charity”, remarked.
The homily of the Catholic hierarch concluded by asserting that “the good Samaritan is really Jesus himself who, moved by compassion, has approached us and has become a neighbor of prostrate and wounded humanity. May our effective compassion and solidarity make the earth inhabited by more “neighbors” and fewer “thugs” and “enemies”».
