Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 8, 2024
Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.
Today’s gospel serves as a palpable reflection of the divine love we experience from God through our human relationships, especially the love between a mother and a child. While I am not a parent, I am, however, a daughter, and I know how much love exists between me and my mother.
This passage invited me to put myself in the shoes of the daughter. Did the daughter know how she was saved; how she came to be healed? Did the mother share with her daughter that she came and fell at the feet of Jesus and begged him to drive the demon out of her? If the Greek woman was anything like my mother, she most likely did not.
Like my mother, like the Greek woman, like God—our parents work beyond their limits and behind the scenes out of the love they have for their children. They will sacrifice over and over to make sure their child is healthy and cared for and that their child is loved.
As their children, we are not always attuned to these acts of love; these acts are subtle or more often invisible to us. While we do not get a part two of this story, I would like to imagine that the daughter had immense gratitude for her mother and that the daughter felt the love of God transcend through her mother once they were reunited. If our parent’s love is as powerful as this, just imagine God’s.
Let us give thanks to God for the seen and unseen works of love in our lives.
Prayer
Almighty Father, the woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit, fell at the feet of Jesus with great devotion. With the same faith, may we also trust and commend ourselves to your healing grace. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Saint of the Day

St. Josephine Bakhita is a heroic saint who endured the horrors of slavery with bravery before she escaped into freedom through the group of religious sisters she joined.
Josephine was born around 1869 in Darfur (now part of western Sudan). Her family was part of the powerful Daju people (after whom Darfur is named). Her uncle was the leader of their village, and Josephine was surrounded by a loving, prosperous family during her early years.
When Josephine was eight, her life took a tragic turn when she was snatched by slave traders and brought to El Obeid, a large city in central Sudan.
She reported in her autobiography that the trauma of her abduction caused her to forget her own life. The traders gave her the ironic name Bakhita (from the Arabic word barak, meaning blessed), hoping her name suggesting good fortune and luck would attract potential buyers.
Bakhita, as she was now known, was bought by an Arab to be a chambermaid for his daughters. During this period, her enslaver's son once broke into a rage and beat her so severely she was unable to walk for over a month.
Bakhita was sold to other owners who treated her with unspeakable, inhumane cruelty. In her autobiography, she recounts some of the horrendous customs of beating and scarring slaves which she endured.
In 1883, Bakhita was sold to a new owner—the Italian Consul to Sudan, Callisto Legnani. When he had to return to Italy, he brought Bakhita with him and gave her to the Michieli family. Bakhita was a faithful nanny to the Michieli family’s young daughter.
In the fall of 1888, Bakhita and her young charge went to stay with the Canossian Sisters in Venice while the rest of the family was away on business. While staying with the Canossians, Bakhita encountered Christianity the first time. The kind sisters instructed Bakhita in the Christian faith. When the Michieli family returned to bring back Bakhita to Sudan, Bakhita refused to go. The Michielis appealed to the courts, who upheld Bakhita’s freedom.
Shortly thereafter, Bakhita was baptized and received the new name of Josephine in 1890. Three years later, she entered the Canossian novitiate. After a life spent in being uprooted, Josephine was assigned to the Canossian convent in Schio and remained there for forty-two years, throughout all of World War II.
When asked later by one of her students what she would do if she met one of her captors or former owners, Josephine responded:
“If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today.”
Remarking on Josephine Bakhita’s remarkable love and forgiveness, Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Spe Salvi ("In Hope We Are Saved"), attributed Sr. Josephine's hope and love to her hope in God’s love for her. St. Josephine knew that whatever happened to her, she would be, at the end of her life, greeted by the love who made her.
Immediately after her death on February 8, 1947, the people of Schio began to petition for the canonization of their beloved Madre Moretta or "little black mother." On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Josephine Bakhita; she has since become the patron saint of Sudan and of the victims of human trafficking.
St. Josephine Bakhita, whose love and hope transformed the wounds of slavery into forgiveness and freedom—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Josephine Bakhita is in the public domain. Last accessed January 23, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.