Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest
Saint Peter Claver evangelized slaves who were brought to South America in the 17th century. They were bought off the coast of Guinea and Angola as captives of tribes who fought against each other for the price of wine, vodka or vinegar. Both during their monstrous voyage on ships - where they were crowded in chains, with hoops around their necks - and on land, they were treated as beings of a lower species. A great number of them died on the way. "So, they came to their destination exhausted from malnutrition, wounded in body and spirit, terrified, often on the verge of madness" (Fr. Antonio Sicari, "New Portraits of Saints").
Saint Peter Claver did not know the languages spoken by the newcomers from Africa. He did not study psychology, he was not a specialist in the culture of primitive peoples. He was not a doctor, psychotherapist, or benefactor. He was a poor monk. Yet in his 44 years in Colombia, he converted and baptized tens of thousands of people who were treated as "living commodities", "ebony wood" and marketed, as well as hundreds of Muslims and Protestants. Over the years he had repeated the same things over and over again with the regularity with which the overloaded ships came to the port: First, he set out on a small boat to meet the ship. He had a handy first aid kit with him, fruit, food, tobacco. Each time he descended to the hold plunged in darkness, he felt that he would not survive it.
But he never backed away. (Himself, as a young man, had to deal with oversensitivity, delicacy and fears ...). First, he approached the dying, "with a gentle word of consolation, in the hope that for a moment they would feel embraced by God's arms. Then he turned to the children, and to the tormented prisoners. He hugged everyone to his chest, gave everyone something appropriate”. He would return to them immediately when they were residents of the decaying booths, where they waited for their future buyers. "Not afraid of contracting any disease or dirt, he appeared in his poor black cassock, with a cross on his chest ...". When the slaves could focus their attention on what the man with the cross on his chest had to say to them, he began teaching.
It had nothing to do with today's catechesis. “He unfolded a large board with a hand-drawn lesson, and then, with the help of a wooden rod, indicated successive colorful pictures and commented on them with gestures, sighs, repeated many times with the same words. In the center was the Lord Jesus on the cross, at His feet - a priest baptizing with water taken from the bleeding wounds of the Savior. On one side - a crowd of black people with smiling and joyful faces, who stand in a row surrounded by angels and saints, on the other - black, deformed figures with anguished faces, and around them terrifying figures of demons”. After some time, he was able to present to his portages a collection of graphics "The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ", published by Bartolomeo Ricci - a true work of art. He also gained helpers and translators using thirty dialects. Over time, they too became the protectors of their brothers.
There was never on the part of Saint Peter Claver of condescension and convincing that it is good that they grew up in pagan cults, because "all religions are equal." Being for them "father, brother, educator, master, confessor, judge, he could get everything from them, because he gave everything ". And the newcomers from the African mainland understood perfectly that the man in the black cassock (from the upper classes of Spain) was their true father, because he cares first of all for the salvation of their souls. The cassock he was wearing was torn all over, so many hands stretched out to its folds - its shreds were hidden away as relics; the barber who cut his hair secretly hid his hair, which also became relics. Saint Peter Claver healed souls and bodies, and there were cases of resurrection from the dead. He also always accompanied the convicts until the end. A prayer book of one of the black slaves sentenced to death which helped him prepare for it, bears the owner's signature: "The happiest man in the world."
Today's slavery is not so spectacular. Slaves are no different in appearance from other people. They are well fed and dressed. They take care of their physical needs themselves. They can exercise their rights, which are pompously known as human rights. However, they are in a worse position than those to whom Saint Peter Claver sailed on his little boat. They do not know that they are ignoring total dependence on God in exercising their laws. Choosing freedom from the Creator's rights, they sink totally and completely into spiritual slavery, in slave dependence on the spirit of this world, who also bears the name of the prince of darkness. Not only here on earth – but for all eternity.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george