ST PETER CLAVER: THE SLAVE OF THE SLAVES FOREVER

ST PETER CLAVER, SJ-THE SLAVE OF THE SLAVES FOREVER

Fr. Julius Clavero’s Homily

The knowledge of God through love, the awareness of God’s inevitable presence, love for the unlovable, selfless giving, going extra mile, doing good without expecting anything in return, mercy, and generosity, all these beautiful teachings of our readings today point to our man of the day- St. Peter Claver, SJ (Siya balaan nga misyonero, Si bishop Claver balaan nga Obispo, kulbaan man sad ta ani!)

“Claver” means “keeper of the key” or porter according to fr.Jorge.  true to the meaning of his name, St. Peter Claver kept and held the “keys” for the many desolate and desperate people in his time to God and heaven.  A native of Spain, young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the new world.  He sailed into Cartagena (now Colombia).  By this time the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly 100 years, and the Cartagena was a chief center for it.  Ten thousand slaves poured into the port each year after crossing the Atlantic from west Africa under conditions so foul and inhuman that an estimated one-third of the passengers die in transit.

As soon as a slave ship entered the port,Peter Claver moved into its infested hold to minister to the ill-treated and exhausted passengers.  After the slaves were herded out of the ship like chained animals and shut up in nearby yards to be gazed at by the crowns, Claver plunged in among them with medicines, food, bread, brandy, lemons and tobacco.  With the help of interpreters he gave basic instructions and assured his brothers and sisters of their human dignity and God’s saving love.  During the 40 years of his miinistry, Claver instructed and baptized an estimated 300000 slaves.

We have before us a most extraordinary saint.  A priest whose love knew no bounds, who had no fears except of offending God, a man who loved the unlovable.  He embraced lepers, kissed cancerous lesions, sucked out poison from running ulcers, washed the unclean and dined in their unsightly hovels, nor did he refrain even from eating food some despairing suicidal had rejected from their own mouths, in his determination to gain there confidence.  He did such things not once, not twice, as some saints have done, but nearly everyday for forty long toilsome years.   Claver took care of the negro slaves.  No he didn’t ignore the needs of whites; he just didn’t give them the priority.  The perfumed class had enough priests to care for them but the blacks had no one.  After all, it is a lot easier to love those who are clean than to love those who are not.  That is why St. Peter Claver travelled such a lonely road.  The beauty that attracted this apostle was one far superior to that of pretty faces and balanced proportions; it was his God and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom he saw in the most abandoned and the most loathsome.  To Claver, the poorest of the poor were truly “the least of His brethren” and heirs to a kingdom not of this world.  For this, Claver declares, “I am the slave of the negroes forever.”

His apostolate extended beyond his care for slaves.  He became a moral force, indeed, the apostle of Cartagena.  He preached in the city square, gave missions to sailors and traders as well as country missions, during which he avoided, when possible, the hospitality of the planters and owners and lodged in the slave quarters instead.  For this he also championed the cause of social justice.

Peter Claver understood that the concrete service like the distributing of medicine; food of brandy to his black brothers and sisters could be as effective a communication of the word of God as mere verbal preaching.  As Peter Claver often said, “we must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips.”

Reflecting on the life of St. Peter Claver, i felt a deep sense of shame and unworthiness as i saw my own enslavement to a life of comfort and convenience.  Sometimes in my “limited” real involvement with the poor, the sick, the hopeless, and the unlovable i have become comfortable with the idea that reaching out to them is a special apostolate, an extra ministry as a priest.  St Peter Claver today brings to our face the truth of our discrepancy- that these are the people God wants us to serve, the flock entrusted to us, the very reason why we are called “shepherds.” (tungod niini naulaw ko sa mga panahon nga ang tan aw nako sa mga trisikad driver sa kadalanan samok2x ra; sa mga panahon nga dali ra kayo ko mangita ug “excuse” para diloi makatabang sa mga nanginahanglan; sa mga panahon nga ang pagtagad sa mga makililimos para nako usik2x ra sa akong panahon...)  dili man jud nato malimod nga dali ug hayahay ra makighugoyhugoy sa mga arangan, mga humot, mga edukado ug disente, mga wapa ug wafo, sa mga inila, ug sa atong mga higala but the tall challenge for all of us desiring to serve God is to see and feel Christ among the poor, the marginalized, the sick, the orphans, and the rest of our least brethren.  In the words of Fr. Honti, “tulutan mo aking mata, mamulat sa katotohanan, ikaw poon makilala, sataong magpakumbaba.”

Let us then pray that we may have the courage to let go everything that is selfish in us and times when we are confronted with real situations to help the poor and the needy, we may become even ,ore courageous to be selfless and generous.

St. Peter Claver, apostle of the slaves, pray for us!