SLAVERY'S BITTER FRUITS

Homily for Sept. 9^th 2013. St. Peter Claver

          “The mystery hidden from ages “has now been manifested to his holy ones,” Paul writes in our first reading. He is referring to the mystery of God becoming man in Jesus Christ. And Paul actually wrote that this was made known not to “his holy ones” (as our translation has it), but to “his saints.” In Paul’s day all the baptized were considered saints. They had been made holy, or sanctified, in baptism.

          We celebrate today a saint, in the modern sense of someone of heroic sanctity, who is of special significance to us Americans. St. Peter Claver was born in Spain in 1581. Following studies at the University of Barcelona, he entered the Society of Jesus at age 20. Encouraged by a Jesuit lay brother, Alphonsus Rodrigues, later declared a saint himself, Peter volunteered for service in the Spanish colonies in Latin America. He arrived in Cartagena/Columbia in 1610 and was ordained a priest six years later.

          The port city of Cardagena was a trading hub, with 10,000 slaves being landed there annually from West Africa. Peter Claver would spend the next 40 years serving them. It is estimated that in that time he baptized 300,000 slaves. Before doing so, he would explain the faith to them with the help of interpreters and simple pictures. He ministered also to the seamen who brought the slaves to the New World, and to slave traders and owners, urging them to treat the slaves as brothers. Ill and often ill treated for the last four years of his life, Peter Claver died on Mary’s birthday, Sept. 8^th, 1654. He was immediately acclaimed as a saint by the people of Cartagena, who gave him a state funeral.

          St. Peter Claver’s significance for us Americans is that we are heirs, whether we like it or not, of two centuries of  bitter cruelty to African slaves. You cannot practice injustice on such a scale and expect there will be no evil consequences. That millions of black children grow up in our society today without a father (with all the social damage this causes) is not unconnected to the willingness of slave owners to ignore the marriages of their slaves and sell them to different owners when this was financially profitable. With good reason, then, we invoke the prayers of St. Peter Claver today for compassion and justice for all people in our society, which is still paying the price for past injustice.