Easter is new life
In this luminous time of Easter, where the Church firmly proclaims that Christ has conquered death, we gather today to celebrate not only the mystery of new life, but also the living history of a people who have known how to defend it. The Word of God places us on a clear horizon: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (cf. Jn 3:36). It is not a distant promise; It is a certainty that transforms the present.
Easter is not a memory; It is a living force. It is the breath of the Risen Lord that drives man not to give up, to rise, to guard life, dignity and freedom. Against that horizon we contemplate today, with gratitude, the 182 years of our glorious Navy of the Dominican Republic.
Guarding life is a vocation, a service
Just as the apostles, in the first reading, spoke with courage even in the midst of persecution, you too, men and women of the sea, are called to a mission that is not only technical or strategic, but deeply moral and spiritual. The sea, vast and mysterious, can be a symbol of danger and uncertainty, but it is also a space of vigilance, discipline and honor.
The Navy is not just coastal defense; It is defense of a people, its history and its hope. Easter illuminates the meaning of military service: the Risen Christ does not impose himself by force, but neither does he surrender to evil. True strength is not in dominating, but in serving firmly; not in destroying, but in protecting.
Therefore, the uniform they wear is not only a symbol of authority; It is a commitment to life. A commitment that requires sacrifice, silence, long nights and distance from loved ones, but that also ennobles the soul.
One hundred and eighty-two years: memory that compromises. Since 1844, in the heat of our independence, brave men took to the sea not out of ambition, but out of love for their country. Today you are heirs of that history. The homeland is not improvised; It is built with discipline, loyalty and daily dedication. A nation that forgets its defenders is weakened, but defenders who forget the values they protect are lost.
Under the protection of Mary we find a safe refuge. In this parish dedicated to Our Lady of Amparo, we contemplate the Mother who knows vigilance, waiting and uncertainty. She stood firm at the foot of the cross. May it teach us to sustain hope in the midst of the storm, to not lose faith when the horizon darkens, and to serve with a clean heart.
Battle of Tortuguero, Homeland and Christian heritage
Our independence was not born in a vacuum. It was not a simple political act or an improvised reaction. It was the fruit of a historical consciousness forged in faith. The Dominican nation, from its roots, has breathed a deeply Christian air. In the midst of the tensions of their time, our founding fathers did not conceive freedom as a break with God, but as an affirmation of the dignity that comes from Him.
In a world shaken by the ideas of the French Enlightenment, which in many cases sought to build a society without God, our country took a different path. Here, freedom did not rise against faith, but walked alongside it. The light of reason was not rejected, but neither was the light of the Gospel extinguished.
It is enough to remember the founding gesture of our nationality, on that historic night of Independence of the Dominican Republic: the oath before God, the invocation to his providence, the clear awareness that true freedom cannot be sustained without a moral foundation. It is no coincidence that the first Constitution recognized the centrality of faith in the life of the people.
And at the heart of that event shines the figure of Juan Pablo Duarte, who did not understand the homeland as a merely political project, but as a community founded on values, where justice, truth and the common good have deeply Christian roots.
And if we want to see this synthesis between faith, homeland and sacrifice made concrete history, let’s look towards the sea, towards the decisive Battle of Tortuguero. There, at the very dawn of the nation, not only a territory was defended, but an identity. Those men did not fight motivated solely by strategy or interest, but by a deeper conviction: that the freedom that is born from God deserves to be guarded with life. In contrast to the ideological winds that blew from the French Enlightenment – where sometimes they wanted to build a society without reference to the Creator – our sailors affirmed, with their blood and their courage, that the Dominican homeland could not be understood without its Christian soul. Thus, the echo of Juan Pablo Duarte did not resonate only on dry land, but also in the waters, where the defense of sovereignty was, at the same time, defense of a way of conceiving man: free, yes, but under the gaze of God.
final exhortation
Brothers, Easter reminds us that the last word is not death, fear or violence, but life. And you, as the Navy, are called to be guardians of that life.
May every mission, every patrol and every order carried out also be an act of love for God and country. May the Risen Christ sail with you in your boats, calm your storms and strengthen your hearts. And that at the end of each day they can say with truth: “Lord, we have fulfilled, we have served, we have loved.”
Amen.
The author is Bishop of the Diocese of Nuestra Señora de La Altagracia
