Homily: Sept 9 2016 - St. Peter Claver - "slave of slaves"

St. Peter lived in a time when people in Africa were being captured and sold into slavery.  The poor Africans were put on ships where they suffered from starvation, dehydration, and truly disgusting conditions.  Although the practice of slave-trading was condemned by the Popes of the time, it continued to flourish. Many Africans died by the thousand as they made their way from Africa to the Americas.  St. Peter Claver, a priest born in Spain, understood the wickedness of the slave trade.  He came to South America where he would minister to the slaves brought there. As they came into harbor, he gave them food and water and medicine, and told them about God who loves them, and about Jesus who suffered like they did. 

They would ask him for baptism. St. Peter Claver baptized hundreds of thousands of African slaves into the Catholic faith.

Peter Claver recognized the human dignity of the Africans when the rest of the world treated them like property and cattle to be sold, traded, slaughtered if they did not perform. He recognized their humanity because he had learned to see with the eyes of God and love with the heart of Christ.

Peter Claver remarked more than once how it took everything in him at times to go down into the disgusting conditions of the slave-ships filled with filth and stench.  He reminds us that true loving service isn’t necessarily about liking what we do—we might even be filled with revulsion, but loving service means being faithful despite our personal feelings. 

Peter because of his love and care for the slaves was himself despised by the slave-traders and those making a profit from the slave-trade. In 1650 Peter Claver fell victim to an epidemic and was literally abandoned to die in his sickness.

Holiness might indeed lead us to being reviled by the wicked, hated by the world. Peter Claver saw clearly who the Lord was calling him to love and serve, and he responded generously to that call, pouring out his life in humble humble service—he became as the collect said, “a slave of slaves.” May each of us respond to the call to holiness with that same radical generosity for the glory of God and salvation of souls.