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.

Friday, September 9, 2022

 Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest

(I Corinthians 9:16-19.22b-27; Luke 6:39-42)

As today’s first reading shows, St. Paul was a serious fellow.  Commissioned to preach the gospel, Paul ran with the charge as the fastest in the race.  But he was not completely humorless.  When Paul writes that his recompense is to preach free of charge, he is trying to make a joke.  He means that what he receives for his efforts is nothing! 

St. Peter Claver worked tirelessly like St. Paul and hardly received more for his efforts.  His pulpit, it might be said, were the pens of the slaves brought from West Africa to Cartagena.  There he baptized an estimated three hundred thousand men and women in more than forty years of evangelizing.

Following Christ means carrying one’s cross.  It is not easy and will require intense seriousness.  Yet it should not be a sad or joyless experience.  After all, we have the company of many, many good people as well as Christ’s own.  If we allow it, they will bring us comfort and joy.

Thursday, September 9, 2021

 Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest

(Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 6:27-38)

Few have fulfilled Jesus’ commands in today’s gospel like St. Peter Claver.  A Jesuit missionary during the 17^th century, Peter Claver entered fetid slave ships to minister to their human cargo.  He gave instruction in the faith as well as food, medicine, bread, and lemons.  It is said that Claver catechized and baptized more than 300,000 African slaves!

In the gospel Jesus admonishes his disciples to love those in need.  He does not mean that they are merely to think of or even to pray for them.  Love is very practical in Scripture.  Jesus is telling his disciples to help those without resources.  Like Peter Claver assisting African slaves, Jesus disciples are to give food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, and shelter to the homeless.

It is not hard to bring old clothes to Goodwill or to serve in a soup kitchen once every month.  But as the ministry grows to gathering, assorting, and hauling a whole parish’s donations or serving food three times weekly, the work becomes a burden.  We do it not only because of the Lord’s command, but also because mystically we meet him in the effort.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest

(I Corinthians 9:16-19.22b-27; Luke 6:39-42)

Last Sunday Pope Francis canonized St. Teresa of Kolkata.  There are millions living today who could testify to her saintliness.  The stories of her touching the untouchables remind us of Jesus fearlessly treating lepers.  Today the Church remembers another saint who worked among the world’s most marginalized people.  St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit priest, looked after the physical as well as the spiritual needs of Africans brought to the New World as slaves.  A native of Spain, Peter descended to the stench-ridden holds of slave ships where he treated men and women dying of infectious diseases.  Peter had developed the discipline that St. Paul writes of in today’s first reading. 

Paul has written this first letter to the Corinthians to correct a number of abuses in the Christian community that he founded.  He was distraught by reports of the scandals of which he had heard especially sexual abuses.  Now he exhorts the Corinthians to take their faith as seriously as athletes take a competitive event.  He wants them to develop discipline so that they control carnal desire and be rewarded the prize of eternal life.

We develop discipline by practicing the four moral virtues.  Justice will assure that we give ourselves the attention that is due.  Temperance will keep us from overindulging our appetites and also over-exuberant zeal.  Fortitude will keep us on track when we feel that the goal is not worth the effort.  Last but not least, prudence will direct us every day as to what must be done to reach our goal. 

Monday, September 9, 2013

Memorial of St. Peter Claver, priest

(Colossians 1:24-2:3; Luke 6:6-11)

St. Peter Claver lived most of his life in Cartagena, Columbia, where he took care of the slaves recently imported from Africa.  Practicing his medical skills on the Africans, he exhausted himself trying to meet their needs.  Biographers mention that he died almost isolated from his Jesuit brothers, so radical was his dedication to the slaves.  His story makes an ample relief for the passage from the Letter to the Colossians.

The words read today might perk up a half- deaf person’s attention.  “In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his Body, which is the Church,…”  Is the author claiming that there is something deficient about Christ’s passion and death that the Church needs additional sacrifice?  Hardly! What Paul, the presumed author although many scholars today express reservations, means is that the message of Christ’s redemption must be carried to the world by his preaching which includes suffering as a witness to its truth. 

Of course, the need to “fill up what is lacking in the affliction of Christ…” is not limited to Paul or to early Christianity.  Rather it is renewed in every era, in every society.  We too have to suffer patiently so that others may know of Christ’s salvation of the world.  We too carry his message to the world by taking pains to care for others.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Memorial of St. Peter Claver (priest)

(I Timothy 1:1-2.12-14; Luke 6:39-42)

Stephen Spielberg’s movie “Amistad” tells part of the story of the horror of the slave trade. It depicts how Black Africans were crammed on ships like cattle where they lost their status as human beings in the eyes of most of the world. However, people like the heroes of “Amistad” and St. Peter Claver, whose feast is celebrated today, saw through human pretensions and gave the Africans the care they deserve.

Like the slaves who received the ministrations of Peter Claver probably felt, the Letter to Timothy, begun in the first reading today, expresses how St. Paul revels in divine mercy. The apostle can give thanks to God for calling him out of an atmosphere of hatred and reproach in his pursuit of Christians into one of gentleness and love as Christ’s follower. It pains Paul to think of his former days, but that memory also spurs him to suffer greater trials than most can imagine to bring the comfort of Christ to others.

All of us have been similarly saved by Jesus even though many do not recognize his salvation. Christianity has established a civilization of justice and love -- not perfectly but perceptibly. The human gains of his followers aside, Jesus has, most of all, won for us the promise of eternal life. Now we know that even if we are victimized by others, we can still look forward to peace and joy.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest

(I Corinthians 8:1b-7.11-13; Luke 6:27-38)

Suarez, Lonergan, Rahner, Marechal, de Lubac, Chardin – these are names of great Jesuit thinkers. The Society of Jesus has distinguished itself perhaps more than any other religious community for academic theology over the last 450 years. Yet the greatness of the band is demonstrated more by the holiness of its members. Certainly St. Peter Claver endowed this latter category.

Peter Claver traveled from Spain to Colombia as a young Jesuit in the early eighteenth century. After he was ordained there, he began to work with slaves in the port city of Cartagena. He cured the slaves of illnesses and gave them instructions in the faith. He was fearless in entering disease-infested slave ships – all “for the greater glory of God.”

In the first reading today St. Paul instructs the Corinthians the truth Peter lived. As helpful as knowledge may be, it is always second to love. Knowledge can inflate one with pride. Love, on the other hand, makes others strong. Out of love for sensitive co-believers Paul advises his readers to forego enjoying meat sacrificed to idols as he might advise parents today to take care not to watch television with mature themes with their children. Out of love for God Peter Claver dedicated his life for the welfare of the most socially oppressed of His children.