Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 7:25-31

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 45:11-12, 14-15, 16-17

Gospel: Luke 6:20-26

Daily readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090926.cfm

Luke’s Beatitudes are shorter and sharper than Matthew’s. Jesus looks at his disciples and says: blessed are you who are poor — the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry — you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep — you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, insult you, and denounce you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day. Then he turns it over: woe to you who are rich — you have received your consolation already. Woe to you who are filled now. Woe to you when all speak well of you.

That last one is the one worth sitting with. Woe to you when all speak well of you — for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way. The person who never makes anyone uncomfortable, who has no enemies, who never says anything that costs them — that is not a safe place to be, by Jesus’s measure. The kingdom inverts what looks like security.

Today the Church remembers Peter Claver, a Spanish Jesuit who arrived in Cartagena, Colombia in 1610 and spent forty years boarding slave ships. Cartagena received ten thousand enslaved Africans every year. Claver went into the holds — described by those who saw them as horrifying beyond words — and brought food, medicine, and whatever he could beg. He said: we must speak to them with our hands before we speak to them with our lips. He signed his Jesuit vows: slave of the Africans forever. He baptized an estimated three hundred thousand people. He stayed in the slaves’ quarters rather than the plantation owners’ homes. He lived exactly the Beatitudes he had read: blessed are the poor, blessed are the weeping, blessed are the excluded — and he went to find them.

Paul writes: the world in its present form is passing away. Hold everything lightly. What Cartagena’s society thought was permanent was passing. What Claver was doing was lasting.

A few questions to sit with tonight:

1. Jesus says woe to those when all speak well of them. Is there something true I have held back from saying — at work, at home, in a conversation — because I did not want to lose someone’s good opinion?

2. Peter Claver said: we must speak with our hands before we speak with our lips. Is there someone in my life right now who needs my hands — my presence, my practical help — more than they need my words?

3. The Beatitudes say the poor, the hungry, and the weeping are blessed — not because suffering is good, but because the kingdom belongs to them. Do I actually believe that? How does it show up in how I spend my time and attention?

4. Paul says the world in its present form is passing away — hold lightly what you are holding. What am I gripping too tightly right now that I could loosen my hold on today?

One small thing for tomorrow:

Tomorrow, find one person who is having a hard time — someone weeping, struggling, excluded — and do one thing with your hands. Bring them something. Sit with them. Show up. Let your hands speak first.

Lord Jesus, you said the kingdom belongs to the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the excluded. Peter Claver believed you and spent his life proving it. Help me to believe it too — not just as a doctrine but as something that changes where I go and what I do with my hands. Free me from the need to be spoken well of by everyone. Loosen my grip on what is passing so I can hold more tightly to what lasts. Amen.

If you would like to share: is there someone in your life right now whose burden you could help carry — even in a small way?