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| Saint Josephine Bakhita: Feast Day February 8 |
Homily:
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B
Saint Josephine Bakhita was born in the Darfur region of
South Sudan in 1869. When she was seven
years old, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery. In the ensuing years, she was sold and resold
to different slave owners, suffering physical and psychological abuse
everywhere she went. Bakhita was the
name given to her by her first slave owner.
The abuse she received over the years traumatized her so much that she
actually forgot the name that her parents had given her. Finally, she ended up in the hands of an
Italian ambassador, Callisto Legnani.
With this family, however, there was no abuse and Bakhita’s long journey
of healing could begin.
Because of political tensions in Sudan, ambassador Legnani
had to leave Africa to return to Italy and, per Bakhita’s request, he brought her
along with his family. Upon returning to
Italy, the Michieli family, who were friends of the Legnanis, requested that
Bakhita stay with them. Mr. Legnani
agreed and when the Michielis gave birth to a daughter, Bakhita became her
babysitter and friend. When the
Michielis were forced to move back to Africa for business, Bakhita and their
daughter were entrusted to the Canossian Sisters of the Institute of
Catechumens in Venice. It was there that
Bakhita would come to know God.
After several months of prayer and study in the
catechumenate, Bakhita received the Sacraments of Initiation, taking the name
Josephine. Not long after, the Michielis
returned, having established their business back in Africa, to take their
daughter and Josephine to be with them.
Josephine refused to go back to Africa, however, requesting to stay with
the Canossian Sisters, instead. Because
Italian law had abolished slavery, the Michielis could not force her to go and thus
she was granted her wish.
Josephine stayed with the sisters; eventually following the
call to enter religious life herself.
Six years after she was baptized she made her solemn profession as a
Canossian Sister. For the next fifty
years, she humbly and dutifully served her fellow sisters and those with whom
she came in contact through the sisters’ apostolate. All who knew her knew the joy that radiated
from her in every encounter. She was
known to say “Be good, love the Lord, and pray for those who do not know him.
What a great grace it is to know God!” In
her, we today find the inspiring story of a woman set free from oppression and
slavery through Christian action who then turned to offer herself completely in
service to God.
In our Gospel reading today, we hear a story with a similar
outcome. Having taught in the synagogue
in Capernaum (where he freed a man from an “unclean spirit”), Jesus returned to
the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s
mother-in-law lay seriously ill with a fever.
When they told Jesus about her, he went to her and healed her. Then the Gospel says that “she waited on
them.” Viewed in the light of St.
Josephine’s story, we can make these correlations: Simon’s mother-in-law was
“enslaved” by an illness; Jesus’ disciples, having seen him cast out the
unclean spirit just hours before, “immediately” tell him about her; Jesus
approaches her and sets her free; and she, in her freedom, then chooses to
serve. In other words, set free by Jesus
whom they encountered through the actions of his disciples, these women then
freely chose to subject themselves in service to others.
Although slavery is almost universally abolished, millions
of men and women throughout the world still suffer from it. Every day men and women are forced into
oppressive work or, worse yet, are bought and sold as sex slaves to feed
humankind’s exponentially growing lust. In
our own state, and even in our own county, addiction to alcohol, heroin, and prescription
pain killers has enslaved many of our own family members and friends. For many of these persons, life looks a lot
like Job describes in our First Reading today: a drudgery, with days like those
of hard labor with no relief in sight, and in which hope of ever experiencing happiness
again has disappeared.
Therefore, more than ever, these men and women need help to
be set free. As Christians, our first
recourse is always to prayer, in which we beg the Lord Jesus to come to them,
to help them up, and set them free. Our
work never ends there, however; for then we must act in the world and draw
close to them, like Saint Paul did, making himself a “slave to all”—that is, becoming
“all things to all”—so that, through our Christian action, these brothers and
sisters of ours might actually be set free.
Set free, therefore, by our prayer and our action, these
men and women can then choose to serve, like Simon’s mother-in-law did and like
Saint Josephine did: for having been loved, most people will choose then to
return love through service to others, because Jesus assures us that “there is
no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
My brothers and sisters, as a people set free by the love
of Christ, who came close to us when he became one of us, and who remains close
to us, especially here in this Eucharist, we must act to be his hands and his
feet that draw close, in prayer and in action, to those still enslaved, so that
they, too, might be set free and thus “know the freedom of the sons [and
daughters] of God.” Even as Saint Paul
gave himself over freely (and free of charge) for the sake of the gospel, so
that he might have a share in the blessings that come from it, so too we must
bring this good news to those who are enslaved in our day; for we will only
share in its blessings in proportion to the measure in which we have shared it
with others.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, let us act so as to see
the power of the Lord Jesus manifest: both throughout the world and right here
in Cass County. For when we do, we will
begin to share in the blessings of the good news and, thus, when we return to
this place, we will be inspired to sing, like the Psalmist in today’s
Responsorial Psalm, “Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.”
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – February 4th, 2018
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