St. Josephine Bakhita’s life is remarkable, and presents many spiritual lessons for us to learn. One of them involves her profound trust in God, despite living in a hopeless situation.
St. John Paul II pointed out this lesson from her life in an address to pilgrims gathered for the beatification of St. Josephine in 1992.
Now elevated to the honor of the altars and set as an example before the whole Church, Blessed Josephine Bakhita, in her humility and total abandonment to God, teaches us not only to work and pray, but above all to trust. From her painful events she had learned, with the grace of God, to have complete trust in him, that he is always present and everywhere, and to be, therefore, constantly good and generous with everyone.
It was this radical trust in God that kept her faith alive and motivated her to accept the Gospel and eventually be baptized.
Instead of having a distrust in God, considering the horrendous situations she experienced, she submitted herself fully to God, even willing to forgive her captors.
Always happy and serene, she joyfully fulfilled her duty, finally accepting her long and painful illness with courage and resignation, never complaining and never speaking ill of anyone. So she said: “If I met those slavers who kidnapped me, and also those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, because if that hadn’t happened, I would not be a Christian and a religious now.”
St. Josephine was able to see her life through the lens of God, recognizing how he was with her in her darkest moments and allowed these terrible things for his greater glory.
She teaches us that whatever situation we may find ourselves in, to have a complete trust in God, knowing that he will bring about a greater good out of it.
And today we celebrate...