Monday, September 9. 2024

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest

(I Corinthians 5:1-8; Luke 6:6-11)

As much as St. Paul is outraged at the immorality of the man who lived with his father’s wife, any person should be appalled by the living conditions which St. Peter Claver witnessed aboard slave ships.  Peter Claver was a Jesuit priest who worked among the slaves in Cartagena, Colombia, during the first half of the seventeenth century.  

African men and women were brought to Cartagena where they were sold to work in mines and on plantations.  The voyage was perilous as were the conditions of the concentration camps where they lodged awaiting purchase.  On his visits to the camps, Claver distributed a range of products from medicine to tobacco to alleviate the slaves’ suffering.  He also prepared them for baptism by teaching rudimentary catechism.  A true missionary of charity, Claver reached out to the seamen and slaveowners in his ministry.

Peter Claver reminds us of the need for spiritual as well as corporal works of mercy.  The destitute may require immediate food for the stomach, but food for the soul is equally important.  Perhaps it is right as well that we become outraged when we see human inhumanity as St. Paul and St. Peter Claver did.