September 9, 2026
Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest
[In the Dioceses of the United States]
Lectionary: 439
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
In regard to virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord,
but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
So this is what I think best because of the present distress:
that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is.
Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation.
Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.
If you marry, however, you do not sin,
nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries;
but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life,
and I would like to spare you that.
I tell you, brothers, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (11) Listen to me, daughter; see and bend your
ear.
Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear,
forget your people and your father’s house.
So shall the king desire your beauty;
for he is your lord, and you must worship him.
R. Listen to me, daughter; see and bend your ear.
All glorious is the king’s daughter as she enters;
her raiment is threaded with spun gold.
In embroidered apparel she is borne in to the king;
behind her the virgins of her train are brought to you.
R. Listen to me, daughter; see and bend your ear.
They are borne in with gladness and joy;
they enter the palace of the king.
The place of your fathers your sons shall have;
you shall make them princes through all the land.
R. Listen to me, daughter; see and bend your ear.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Rejoice and leap for joy!
Your reward will be great in heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets
in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false
prophets in this way.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090926.cfm
Commentary on 1
Corinthians 7:25-31
Today’s reading comes from a longer passage in which Paul
deals with various questions about marriage and celibacy which had been put to
him by the Christians of Corinth.
In the full passage (the whole of chapter 7), Paul makes
three main points:
- In
general, people should remain in the state of life they were in when they
became Christians;
- Celibacy
is a higher call than marriage and spiritually more rewarding;
- Marriage
is acceptable for those who ‘cannot’ otherwise observe chastity.
In today’s reading, Paul is speaking to “the unmarried and
widows” and answering a question about the desirability of a Christian’s
remaining celibate. In giving his reply, he makes it perfectly clear that here
he is expressing his own personal opinion, and not giving
Jesus’ or the Church’s teaching on the matter. He is not dealing with a matter
of moral right or wrong. Even so, he believes he is writing under divine
inspiration and that what he advises is the better course of action. Moreover,
he speaks from the experience of one who is himself, with God’s help,
faithfully observing a celibate life.
His general advice is first that, under the pressures of an
immoral and hostile environment in which the Christians for the most part find
themselves, people should remain in the state they are in now. His advice is to
be understood as applying to the particular circumstances in which the
Corinthians are at present living and is not to be understood as having a
general application. So, men who are married should remain married; on the
other hand, those who are not yet married should consider remaining single.
However, if a young man or woman does decide to get married,
there is no wrong in that. At the same time, Paul warns them that he foresees
trouble in their married life. This is not a reflection on the characters of
those who got married, but a warning that a faithful married life might be
difficult in the pagan and immoral environment in which they lived, and where
they were liable to suffer persecution for their faith. Moreover, in times of
persecution, it could be difficult for a couple to take care of each other or
even to remain together.
It is not clear whether Paul himself was ever married, and
it is possible his present celibate situation might have been due to a marriage
which he found incompatible with his vocation as a wandering apostle. (It is
more likely that he was married at some stage; celibacy was not an admired state
among Jews and we need to remember, too, that Paul had been a Pharisee, setting
an example for other Jews.)
“Time has grown short,” says Paul. This may be a reference
to the second coming of the Lord, or it may be just a general statement that
there is not much time in which to do the Lord’s work, especially if there is a
threat of persecution. (The early Christians found themselves constantly
harassed by both Jews and Gentiles.) Attention should rather be focused on
living the Christian life, on the love and service of the Lord, and the needs
of the Christian community in its work of giving witness to the gospel.
Everything else the Christians did should be subordinated to
this primary concern of their Christian life.
So, putting it rather strongly, Paul urges
- the
married to live as if they were not married,
- those
who are grieving as if they were not grieving,
- those
who are enjoying life to remember that it may not last,
- those
who are tied up in acquiring ownership of things to realise that nothing
really belongs to anyone,
- and
those who have to deal with the world around them not to get too caught up
in it.
It is a warning of the transitoriness of life. Paul reminds
the Corinthians:
For the present form of this world is passing away.
In other words, we should not cling too tightly or give too
much of our energies to relationships, activities and things which sooner or
later we will have to let go of. They must never become ends in themselves.
Very generally speaking, Paul’s advice is still sound.
People are still called both to celibacy and to marriage. Marriage responds to
a need that most people have; nature, in its concern for the preservation of
the species, has seen to that. Celibacy, for the majority, is not what they
feel called to. Yet, apart altogether from those who adopt it for religious
reasons, there are many who choose to remain celibate.
The Church—together with other religions—has seen the call
to celibacy as allowing a more complete commitment to the direct service of God.
In that sense, it is a ‘better’ or ‘higher’ calling in itself. It also
indicates that it is possible to live a full and enriched life without being
sexually active. This is less a matter of supreme sacrifice than an expression
of a special freedom.
But that does not at all mean that the celibate is
necessarily a ‘holier’ or better person than those who are married. Both are
vocations and through both the gospel can be lived to the full. Both bring
their rewards and both at times require great sacrifices to be made.
The question is not which is better in itself, but to which
way God is calling me to love and serve him.
Paul’s own life, and the witness of many religious priests,
brothers and sisters as well as of many others who choose de facto celibacy
makes it clear that celibacy offers a level of freedom for greater service to a
larger number. As Thomas Merton put it, celibacy enables: “Belonging to all
because belonging to none.”
But it cannot be overemphasised that the married couple also
makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to both society and the Christian
community through the family life it nurtures and its contribution to the
future of our society. Let us ask God today that each one of us be faithful to
the particular way in which he has called us to serve him.
Commentary on Luke
6:20-26
Today we begin what is known as Luke’s ‘Sermon on the
Plain’, which more or less parallels Matthew’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’. Luke’s is
much shorter, but both begin with the Beatitudes and end with the parable of
the house builders. Some of what is found in Matthew’s Sermon is found
elsewhere in Luke, because Matthew’s Sermon consists of disparate sayings of
Jesus gathered into one place. Luke also omits Matthew’s specifically Jewish
material which would not have been relevant to his gentile readers.
Luke’s Sermon can be summarised as follows:
- An
introduction of blessings and woes (vv 20-26)
- The
love of one’s enemies (vv 27-36)
- The
demands of loving one’s neighbour (vv 37-42)
- Good
deeds as proof of one’s goodness (vv 43-45)
- A
parable on listening to and acting on the words of Jesus
(vv 46-49)
Similar to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Luke’s Sermon on
the Plain begins with his version of the Beatitudes. But there are striking
differences. Whereas Matthew has eight (some would say seven) Beatitudes, Luke
has four “Blesseds” and four contrasting “Woes”. As is typical of his
uncompromising style when it comes to following Jesus, the language of Luke is
much more direct and hard-hitting, and it may well be closer to what Jesus
actually said.
Matthew’s Beatitudes propose a set of attitudes which
reflect the spirit of the Kingdom—qualities to be found in the truly Christian
and human life. Luke, on the other hand, speaks of material conditions in this
life which will be overturned. Later in this Gospel, this is illustrated
graphically in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-30).
Luke also has Jesus speaking in the second person: “Blessed
are you” and “Woe to you“, rather than in the third
person as Matthew does (“Blessed are those who…”). Nor does he speak of the
“poor in spirit”, but of “you who are poor”, and he certainly means the materially
poor.
He goes on to say how blessed too are:
…you who are hungry…you who weep…you when people hate you
and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of
Man.
Undoubtedly Matthew’s Beatitudes can be read to consider
just spiritual poverty and a hunger for righteousness, which in fact are also a
form of real poverty and real hunger. In contrast, Luke’s is a Gospel for the
materially poor and distressed, and we must be careful not to turn our focus
away from them. That is why he has Jesus being born in poverty and dying naked
and destitute (of even his ‘friends’).
Jesus tells those who are poor and hungry and abused to:
Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your
reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the
prophets.
And this is the way Jesus the Prophet will also be treated.
In a first read, it seems like a classical example of
religion as the ‘opium of the people’: Be happy that you are having such a hard
time now because there is a wonderful future waiting for you in the next world
(as was mockingly described by the atheist Karl Marx).
The second part is not likely to go down well in our
contemporary developed world:
- But
woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
- Woe
to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
- Woe
to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
- Woe
to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated
the false prophets.
How are we to understand these sayings which turn our common
worldview upside down? They have to be seen in the light of the Kingdom, in the
kind of society that Jesus came to set up, a society based on mutual love and
sharing and support. This is a Kingdom for this world and not just the next.
The coming of such a society could only be good news for the poor and destitute
(material and otherwise), for those suffering from hunger (physical and
otherwise), for those depressed by deep sorrow and for those abused and
rejected for their commitment to Jesus and his Way.
On the other hand, it would not be good news for those
self-focused people who amass material wealth at the expense of others, who
indulge in excessive consumption of the world’s goods, who live lives centred
on personal hedonism and pleasure, and who feed off the envy and adulation of
those around them. They are really not part of that Kingdom. To enter fully
into the Kingdom, they have to unload all these concerns and obsessions and let
go. Instead of focusing on what they can get, they will have to focus on what
they can share of what they have.
A clear example is the rich young man in the Gospel. How
rich he was—and yet how sad he was! Compare him with Zacchaeus, whom we will be
meeting later on.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Wednesday,
September 9, 2026
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God our Father,
You redeem us and make us Your
children in Christ. Look upon us, give us true freedom and bring us to the
inheritance You promised.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives
and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 6: 20-26
Raising his eyes toward his
disciples Jesus said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of
God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when
people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name
as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the
prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received
your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all
speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this
way."
Reflection
The Gospel today presents four
blessings and four curses in Luke’s Gospel. There is a progressive revelation
in the way in which Luke presents the teaching of Jesus. Up to 6: 16, he says
many times, that Jesus taught the people, but he did not describe the content
of the teaching (Lk 4: 15, 31-32, 44; 5: 1, 3, 15, 17; 6: 6). Now, after having
said that Jesus sees the crowd desirous to hear the Word of God, Luke presents
the first great discourse which begins with the exclamation, “Blessed are you
who are poor!” and “Alas for you, rich!” and then takes up all the rest of the
chapter (Lk 6: 12-49). Some call this discourse the “discourse on the plain”
because, according to Luke, Jesus came down from the mountain and stopped in a
place which was flat and there He pronounced His discourse. In Matthew’s
Gospel, this same discourse is given on the mountain (Mt 5: 1) and is called
“The Sermon on the Mount.” In Matthew, in this discourse there are eight
Beatitudes, which trace a program of life for the Christian communities of
Jewish origin. In Luke, the sermon is shorter and more radical. It contains
only four Beatitudes and four curses, directed to the Hellenistic communities,
formed by rich and poor. This discourse of Jesus will be meditated on in the
daily Gospel of the next days.
•
Luke 6: 20: Blessed
are you, poor! Looking at the disciples, Jesus declares, “Blessed are you
who are poor, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours!” This declaration identifies the
social category of the disciples. They are poor! And Jesus promises them, “The
Kingdom is yours!” It is not a promise made for the future. The verb is in the
present. The Kingdom belongs to them already. They are blessed now. In the
Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes explicit the meaning of this and says, “Blessed
are the poor in spirit!” (Mt 5: 3). They are the poor who have the spirit of
Jesus; because there are some poor who have the mentality of the rich. The
disciples of Jesus are poor and have the mentality of the poor. Like Jesus,
they do not want to accumulate, but they assume their poverty and with Him,
they struggle for a more just life together, where there will be fraternity and
sharing of goods, without any discrimination.
•
Luke 6: 21-22: Blessed are you, who now hunger and weep. In the second and third
Beatitude, Jesus says, “Blessed are who are hungry now, because you shall have
your full! Blessed are you, who are weeping now, you shall laugh!” One part of
the sentence is in the present and the other in the future. What we live and
suffer now is not definitive; what is definitive is the Kingdom of God which we
are constructing with the force of the spirit of Jesus. To construct the
Kingdom presupposes pain, suffering and persecution, but something is certain:
the Kingdom will be attained, and you will have your fill and you will laugh!
•
Luke 6: 23: Blessed
are you when people hate you...! The 4th Beatitude
refers to the future: “Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out on
account of the Son of Man!” Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy,
look, your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way your ancestors
treated the prophets!” With these words of Jesus, Luke encourages the
communities of his time, because they were persecuted. Suffering is not a death
rattle, but the pain of birth pangs. It is a source of hope! Persecution was a
sign that the future that had been announced by Jesus was arriving, being
reached. The communities were following the right path.
•
Luke 6: 24-25: Alas for you who are rich! Alas for you who now have your fill and
who laugh! After the four Beatitudes in favor of the poor and of the excluded,
follow four threats or curses against the rich and those for whom everything
goes well and are praised by everybody. The four threats have the same
identical literary form as the four Beatitudes. The first one is expressed in
the present. The second and the third one have a part in the present and
another part in the future. And the fourth one refers completely to the future.
These threats are found only in Luke’s Gospel, not in Matthew’s. Luke is more
radical in denouncing injustices.
•
In front of Jesus, on the plains, there are no
rich people. There are only sick and poor people, who have come from all parts
(Lk 6: 17-19). But Jesus says: “Alas for you the rich!” Luke, in transmitting
these words of Jesus, is thinking more of the communities of his time. In those
communities there were rich and poor people, and there was discrimination
against the poor on the part of the rich, the same discrimination which marked
the structure of the Roman Empire (cf. Jas 5: 1-6; Rev 3: 17-19). Jesus
criticizes the rich very hard and directly: You rich have already received
consolation! You are already filled, but you are still hungry! Now you are
laughing, but you will be afflicted and will weep! This is a sign that for
Jesus poverty is not something fatal, nor the fruit of prejudices, but it is
the fruit of unjust enrichment on the part of others.
•
Luke 6: 26: Alas
for you when everyone speaks well of you, because this was the way their
ancestors treated the false prophets! This fourth threat refers to the sons
of those who in the past praised the false prophets; because some authorities
of the Jews used their prestige and power to criticize Jesus.
Personal Questions
•
Do we look at life and at people from the
viewpoint of Jesus? What do you think in your heart: is a poor and hungry
person truly happy? The stories which we see on television and commercial
advertising, what ideal of happiness do they present?
•
In saying “Blessed are the poor,” did Jesus want
to say that the poor have to continue to be poor?
•
Rich and poor are two terms with many
interpretations. What is my interpretation?
•
How does this fit with the meaning Jesus
intended? Do I live authentically and without compromise in my interpretation
of His message and meaning?
Concluding Prayer
Upright in all that He does, Yahweh acts only in faithful
love.
He is close to all who call upon Him, all who call on Him from
the heart. (Ps 145: 17-18)
Saint Peter Claver
Peter Claver was born in Verdu, in Catalonia (Spain) in 1580
and educated at Barcelona University. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1602
at Tarragona. While still in his studies he was sent to the Jesuit college in
Palma de Mallorca (Majorca). Here he met Alphonsus Rodriguez, a Jesuit Brother
who was the doorkeeper of the college (and who was later canonised as a saint).
In conversations with Alphonsus, Peter was fired with a desire to do missionary
work in the New World then being colonised by Spain and Portugal. He did his
theological studies at Barcelona and then was sent to Cartagena (now in
Colombia) in 1610. Six years later, he was ordained priest in 1616.
At this time Cartagena was one of the main clearing houses
of a flourishing, but shameful trading of Africans from Angola and other parts
of West Africa, who were brought over in huge numbers under dreadful conditions
to work as slaves in the New World. It has been estimated that some 10,000
individuals were shipped to Cartagena every year. Peter began his work with the
slaves under Fr Alfonso de Sandoval, who had already spent 40 years in this
work. Peter walked in his predecessor’s footsteps and did even more.
When a slave-ship arrived in the port, the slaves were
crowded like animals into large enclosures, crammed together in intense heat
without care or medical attention of any kind. Peter would visit them bringing
medicine, food, brandy and tobacco. He had a group of assistants who helped in
the distribution and also acted as interpreters. With their help and also by
using pictures, Peter taught the basics of Christianity and prepared many
slaves for baptism. In their dreadful living conditions, he also tried to
increase their awareness of their basic dignity as people for each one of whom
Christ died.
From Cartagena, the slaves would then be sent to work in the
mines (work which was regarded as too difficult for the native peoples) and
also to plantations. Peter would visit these places in the spring, not always
with the approval of their owners. He would also take personal care of slaves
reduced to living in conditions which no one else could endure. When he had
pronounced his final vows in 1622, he signed his name, “Peter Claver, slave of
the slaves forever” (Aethiopum semper servus). It was a promise he more
than lived up to.
He did not confine his ministry to the slaves. He was also
concerned about the spiritual welfare of the more prosperous members of
society, as well as traders and others passing through, including Muslims and English
Protestants. He also helped prepare condemned prisoners for death and was a
regular visitor to the hospitals. Every autumn he would go on a preaching
mission to merchants and seamen in every port.
As well as leading a life of great austerity, miracles,
prophetic statements and the gift of reading hearts were attributed to him. In
1650, he was taken ill while preaching to the slaves. It seems to have been a
stroke because he was partially paralysed for the remaining four years of his
life. Neglected by the young African who was supposed to take care of him, he
was only able to go for short visits to the hospital or friends. However, he
did live long enough to welcome his successor in his work. At his death on
September 8, 1654 the civil authorities and the clergy, who had been highly
critical of him in life, were now united in his praise. While he was given a
civic funeral, the slaves and the native people arranged a Requiem of their
own.
Peter is revered for his great love of neighbour and his
work in overcoming racial barriers and hatred. Pope Leo XIII canonized him in
1888, and in 1896, the same pope declared him special patron of missions to the
black peoples. His feast is now celebrated on 10-September, two days after his
death.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary/f0909s/
