The auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Báezrecalled that the members of the Catholic Church they are called to be brave, renounce corrupt acts and defend the freedom and dignity of people.
“We are not simply members of a religious organization, nor are we people educated in deep philosophical ideas, nor are we people who strive to live some very high ethical values. It is important not to forget: we are Christians because Jesus has called us, we have met him and we try to follow him humbly every day,” the prelate said in his Sunday homily on January 22.
The Monsignor pointed out that priests and other members of the Church are called to be “fishers of men” which, consequently, is to be “educators, builders and liberators.”
He explained that religious leaders must comprehensively educate the new generations in justice and truth to “build a new culture founded on dialogue, respect and tolerance.”
It is also “to be liberators of menthat is, people who defend the freedom and dignity of people, fighting against everything that oppresses and humiliates the human being.
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“That is the mission and the deepest joy of the Church. This is what Jesus calls us. For this he has looked at us and has called us, “reiterated the Bishop of Managua.
Monsignor Báez made reference to today’s gospel which recounts the call of Jesus to the fishermen Simon and Andrés, Santiago and Juan to be, from then on, “fishers of men”.
“The Christianity It began with four fishermen from Galilee, two pairs of brothers willing to leave their little world: work, family, social position, economic security, affective stability, and start a path of trust in Jesus and communion with Jesus”, indicated the bishop from Saint Agatha’s Church, in Miami, United States.
But, to fulfill the call of Jesus, “we must leave behind evil and sin and the fears that paralyze us,” the religious leader clarified.
He added that it is necessary to leave “wrongly spent time, victimhood, envy and the calculating spirit that manipulates others.”
“To follow Jesus, one must also renounce the dark maneuvers of corruption, the irrational ambitions that use power to oppress and the comfortable complicity that is silent in the face of injustice,” he stressed.
