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Homily
for Archdiocesan Staff
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: In the jubilee year 2000, I participated in the canonization ceremonies of a number of saints. One of those was Saint Bakhita. I had never heard of her before that ceremony but she immediately became one of my favorite saints – one to whom I turn to almost daily. Saint Bakhita was probably born in 1869 in the eastern part of the Sudan. Bakhita was not her real name. No one knows what the little African girl’s mother called her. She was kidnapped by slave traders when she was probably 8 years old. Her captors re-named her Bakhita, an Arabic name meaning “the lucky one.” The name seems ironic. Years of slavery, torture and hardships were to be her lot. She knew nothing about God or Christianity until she was in her upper teens. Then by a series of providential happenings, she was taken to Italy where slavery was prohibited and she was set free. At the age of 21 or 22, the African slave girl was baptized and became a royal child of God. Now, freed from both physical and spiritual slavery, she really was Bakhita “the lucky one.” Really, not lucky – but blessed for as she recounts in her own memoirs written decades later, she said: “Recalling those events makes me even more grateful to God for the exceptional gifts God bestowed on me BY CHOOSING ME TO BE HIS CHILD.” The gratitude which Saint Bakhita expressed was not just a one-time recollection. She spent the next 57 years in praising and thanking God by seeking ordinary ways to help others and to encourage them and to bring them the Good News of Jesus. She cherished her baptism which conditioned the rest of her mortal life on this earth and led her to eternal life in heaven with Almighty God. Tomorrow, you and I and hundreds of millions of Americans will celebrate our national day of thanksgiving. Many words, speeches and tributes of gratitude will be expressed and rightly so. From historical references of our country’s development and growth to the personal realization of all the gifts we have received, gratitude and thankfulness will be proclaimed. Yes, this is good. We are blessed as individuals. We are blessed as families. We are blessed as the Church and as a nation. Praise and thank God for all these gifts. But be careful, do not equate material goods or earthly station or lot with the real good – the Truth and the Life. God alone is truly good. Our goodness is a share in His life. Without that unity with God, we are still slaves. We are frustrated. We are dying and we will die. Saint Bakhita recognized her freedom, her life, her redemption in Jesus, the eternal Son of God. It was God Who called her in baptism to become His child, His spouse, His saint. Like Saint Bakhita, unless we begin to recognize and be grateful to God, not just for material blessings, but rather, for the true life and salvation His offers us, our lives are slavery. The various Psalms in the Old Testament tell us the same thing. They warn us not to make the mistake of having false gods of ease and prosperity, of popularity and material success. In fact, the Scriptures clearly point out that the prosperity of the wicked is short-lived and doomed. Whereas the sincerity and gratitude and sacrifices of the poor and humble are most pleasing in the sight of God. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we come together here today to give thanks to God for life itself and the promise of everlasting life in heaven. May this Thanksgiving Day with this attitude and determination be the direction we follow all our days on this earth. Like Saint Bakhita, may we ever cherish our own baptism and the call God has given us to become His saints. Happy Thanksgiving. Most
Reverend Eusebius J. Beltran |