In the Gospel of this Sunday, April 16, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio Báez, referred to the “unforgettable first day of the week, that of the resurrection of the Lord”, to remember the victims of the repression of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, during the 2018 massacre, which left, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), at least 355 dead.
Bishop Báez, forced into exile by the Sandinista regime, spoke about “the wounds of the Risen Jesus” and the demand for justice. “The wounds of the Risen Jesus remind us of the victims who offered their lives five years ago, dreaming of a better future for our people and who already live in the heart of God,” said the cardinal.
Báez, urged to remember Ortega’s victims, “memory of them not to hate and ask for revenge, nor to reproduce in us the criminal mechanisms of the oppressor. We remember the victims to pray for them and their families, not to repeat the injustices of the past and honor their memory by demanding justice and committing ourselves to the ideal for which they offered their lives.
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In his homily, the senior Catholic leader, who gave his mass surrounded by relatives of those assassinated by the Sandinista regime and by some of the 222 political prisoners who were exiled to the United States on February 9, compared the wounds of Jesus to being crucified, with the suffering that Nicaraguans live now.
“People also have sores. The peoples subjected, imprisoned and exiled, deprived of their liberties and disrespected in their human rights are peoples with bleeding wounds”, compared Monsignor Báez.
However, he said, “those wounds will resurrect, like those of Jesus. To believe in the Risen Lord is to live with the certainty that the wounds of the people are not forever. To the extent that we assume the wounds of the people as our own and fight to heal them, we will touch the flesh of the glorified Lord in the people. To the extent that we allow indifference to give way to solidarity, we will anticipate the future of life, peace and justice that has already begun with the resurrection of Jesus.
To be agents of understanding, unity and concord
Regarding the manipulation that the dictatorship makes over the imposition of a supposed peace, the prelate called on Nicaraguans to overcome conflicts and “see forward,” because “there is no social peace without inner peace in people,” he said.
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“Unfortunately, after painful years of repression, injustice and death, we remain divided and at odds. The polarization is very great, it seems that we are doomed to never understand or unite. There is no social peace without inner peace in people, “said Monsignor Báez.
But Bishop Báez’s celebration also seems to be dedicated to the different groups of the Nicaraguan opposition, whom he called to understand each other and seek unity. «Without peace in our hearts we will always live with a deep inner emptiness and we will only radiate suspicion, division and fear. It is time to look ahead. Reciprocal confrontation only makes us waste time and energy that we could be devoting together to build a future of justice and progress for all. Let us ask the Risen Jesus today for his gift of peace to be agents of understanding, unity and concord”, he concluded.
