Memorial
of Saint Peter Claver, Priest
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/090920.cfm
Meditation: Blessed
Are You Poor - Yours Is the Kingdom of God
When
you encounter misfortune, grief, or tragic loss, how do you respond? With fear
or faith? With passive resignation or with patient hope and trust in God? We
know from experience that no one can escape all of the inevitable trials of
life - pain, suffering, sickness, and death. When Jesus began to teach his
disciples he gave them a "way of happiness" that transcends every
difficulty and trouble that can weigh us down with grief and despair. Jesus
began his sermon on the mount by addressing the issue of where true happiness
can be found. The word beatitude literally means happiness or blessedness.
Jesus' way of happiness, however, demands a transformation from within - a
conversion of heart and mind which can only come about through the gift and
working of the Holy Spirit.
True happiness can only be fulfilled in God
How can one possibly find happiness in poverty, hunger, mourning, and
persecution? If we want to be filled with the joy and happiness of heaven, then
we must empty ourselves of all that would shut God out of our hearts. Poverty
of spirit finds ample room and joy in possessing God alone as the greatest
treasure possible. Hunger of the spirit seeks nourishment and strength in God's
word and Spirit. Sorrow and mourning over wasted life and sin leads to joyful
freedom from the burden of guilt and oppression.
The beatitudes strengthen us in virtue and excellence
Ambrose (339-397 A.D), an early church father and bishop of Milan, links the
beatitudes with the four cardinal virtues which strengthen us in living a life
of moral excellence. He writes: "Let us see how St. Luke encompassed the
eight blessings in the four. We know that there are four cardinal virtues:
temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude. One who is poor in spirit is not
greedy. One who weeps is not proud but is submissive and tranquil. One who
mourns is humble. One who is just does not deny what he knows is given jointly
to all for us. One who is merciful gives away his own goods. One who bestows
his own goods does not seek another's, nor does he contrive a trap for his
neighbor. These virtues are interwoven and interlinked, so that one who has one
may be seen to have several, and a single virtue befits the saints. Where
virtue abounds, the reward too abounds... Thus temperance has purity of heart
and spirit, justice has compassion, patience has peace, and endurance has
gentleness." (EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 5.62-63, 68).
No one can live without joy
God reveals to the humble of heart the true source of abundant life and
happiness. Jesus promises his disciples that the joys of heaven will more than
compensate for the troubles and hardships they can expect in this world. Thomas
Aquinas said: "No person can live without joy. That is why someone
deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures." Do you
know the joy and happiness of hungering and thirsting for God alone?
Lord
Jesus, increase my hunger for you and show me the way that leads to everlasting
happiness and peace. May I desire you above all else and find perfect joy in
doing your will.
Daily
Quote from the Early Church Fathers: Jesus, though rich, became poor for us,
by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.
"'Blessed,'
it says, 'are the poor.' Not all the poor are blessed, for poverty is neutral.
The poor can be either good or evil, unless, perhaps, the blessed pauper is to
be understood as he whom the prophet described, saying, 'A righteous poor man is
better than a rich liar' (Proverbs 19:22). Blessed is the poor man who
cried and whom the Lord heard (Psalm 34:6). Blessed is the man poor in offense.
Blessed is the man poor in vices. Blessed is the poor man in whom the prince of
this world (John 14:30) finds nothing. Blessed is the poor man who is
like that poor Man who, although he was rich, became poor for our sake (2
Corinthians 8:9). Matthew fully revealed this when he said, 'Blessed are the
poor in spirit' (Matthew 5:3). One poor in spirit is not puffed up, is not
exalted in the mind of his own flesh. This beatitude is first, when I have laid
aside every sin, and I have taken off all malice, and I am content with
simplicity, destitute of evils. All that remains is that I regulate my conduct.
For what good does it do me to lack worldly goods, unless I am meek and
gentle?" (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
5.53-54)
https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2020&date=sep9
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, LUKE 6:20-26
Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, priest (USA)
(1 Corinthians 7:25-31; Psalm 45)
KEY VERSE: "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours" (v. 20).
TO KNOW: Luke's Gospel has a special concern for the "anawim," the poor and lowly of society, rejected by the world but welcomed into God's reign by Jesus. Unlike Matthew who recorded Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount," Luke has Jesus' "Sermon on the Plain," in which he addressed the poor who were following him as disciples. Jesus encouraged them to be detached from material values that became a substitute for the ultimate good of God. Luke also emphasized the persecutions that beset the disciples who were closely united to Jesus' own suffering and rejection. Luke contrasted the blessings that came from being a disciple, and added condemnations of those who were not living a prophetic life-style. This series of "woes," or lamentations, show God's displeasure with people who were blind to the true values of the kingdom.
TO LOVE: How can I bring the Lord's consolation to those who are suffering?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to see my blessings in the midst of my difficulties.
Memorial of Saint Peter Claver
Peter Claver was born 70 years after King Ferdinand of Spain set the colonial slavery culture into motion by authorizing the purchase of 250 African slaves in Lisbon for his territories in New Spain. This event was to shape Claver's life. A Jesuit from age 20, Peter ministered to slaves, physically and spiritually, when they arrived in Cartegena, converting a reported 300,000. For 40 years he worked for humane treatment on the plantations, and organized charitable societies among the Spanish in America, similar to those organized in Europe by Saint Vincent de Paul. Peter said of the slaves, "We must speak to them with our hands by giving, before we try to speak to them with our lips." Peter Claver is considered a heroic example of what should be the duty of all Christians in the exercise of human rights.
http://www.togetherwithgodsword.com/commentaries-on-the-daily-gospel-of-the-mass.html
Wednesday 9 September 2020
St Peter Claver
1 Corinthians 7:25-31. Listen to me, daughter; see and bend your
ear – Psalm 44(45):11-12, 14-17. Luke 6:20-26.
Seek God in all things and you shall find God
by your side – St Peter Claver SJ
After a night in prayer on the mountain, Jesus called and named
the Apostles. Then, ‘standing on a level place’, milled about by a crowd of
poor, diseased and troubled folk, he ‘looked up at his disciples’ and announced
the new order of God’s Kingdom: the Beatitudes. The blessed are not the rich
and respected. Rather, they are the hungry, weeping, and excluded who also hear
and receive freedom in Jesus’ words.
St Peter Claver (1480-1654) is the patron saint of
African-Americans. He spent his life ministering to the human cargo who arrived
at the docks of Cartagena, Colombia, to be sold as slaves. He moved among them
in the sale-yards where they were herded, bringing medicine, food, conversion
and Baptism to thousands. He lived the Beatitudes in his service to those
dispossessed of human dignity.
Pray for justice and freedom for all who are enslaved, and for
mercy for those who profit by slavery.
http://www.pray.com.au/gospel_reflection/wednesday-9-september-2020/
Saint Peter Claver
Saint of the Day for September 9
(June 26, 1581 – September 8, 1654)
Stained glass window in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Andrew in Dormagen in Rhein-Kreis Neuss (Nordrhein-Westfalen) | photo by GFreihalter
Saint Peter Claver’s Story
A native of Spain, young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland
forever in 1610 to be a missionary in the colonies of the New World. He sailed
into Cartagena, a rich port city washed by the Caribbean. He was ordained there
in 1615.
By this time the slave trade had been established in the
Americas for nearly 100 years, and Cartagena was a chief center for it. Ten
thousand slaves poured into the port each year after crossing the Atlantic from
West Africa under conditions so foul and inhuman that an estimated one-third of
the passengers died in transit. Although the practice of slave-trading was
condemned by Pope Paul III and later labeled “supreme villainy” by Pope Pius
IX, it continued to flourish.
Peter Claver’s predecessor, Jesuit Father Alfonso de Sandoval,
had devoted himself to the service of the slaves for 40 years before Claver
arrived to continue his work, declaring himself “the slave of the Negroes
forever.”
As soon as a slave ship entered the port, Peter Claver moved
into its infested hold to minister to the ill-treated and exhausted passengers.
After the slaves were herded out of the ship like chained animals and shut up
in nearby yards to be gazed at by the crowds, Claver plunged in among them with
medicines, food, bread, brandy, lemons, and tobacco. With the help of
interpreters he gave basic instructions and assured his brothers and sisters of
their human dignity and God’s love. During the 40 years of his ministry, Claver
instructed and baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves.
Fr. Claver’s apostolate extended beyond his care for slaves. He
became a moral force, indeed, the apostle of Cartagena. He preached in the city
square, gave missions to sailors and traders as well as country missions,
during which he avoided, when possible, the hospitality of the planters and
owners and lodged in the slave quarters instead.
After four years of sickness, which forced the saint to remain
inactive and largely neglected, Claver died on September 8, 1654. The city
magistrates, who had previously frowned at his solicitude for the black
outcasts, ordered that he should be buried at public expense and with great
pomp.
Peter Claver was canonized in 1888, and Pope Leo XIII declared
him the worldwide patron of missionary work among black slaves.
Reflection
The Holy Spirit’s might and power are manifested in the striking
decisions and bold actions of Peter Claver. A decision to leave one’s homeland
never to return reveals a gigantic act of will difficult for us to imagine.
Peter’s determination to serve forever the most abused, rejected, and lowly of
all people is stunningly heroic. When we measure our lives against such a
man’s, we become aware of our own barely used potential and of our need to open
ourselves more to the jolting power of Jesus’ Spirit.
Saint Peter Claver is the Patron Saint of:
African Americans
African Missions
Colombia
Interracial Justice
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-peter-claver/
Lectio Divina: Luke 6:20-26
Lectio Divina
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Ordinary Time
1) 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.
2) 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."
3) 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.
4) 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?
5) 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)
https://ocarm.org/en/content/lectio/lectio-divina-luke-620-26
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