by Rev. Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Peter Claver. Born in Spain, Peter Claver had a fine mind and seemed destined for an illustrious teaching career in the Jesuit Order. But he volunteered for duty in the West Indies to work in the missions. In 1610 he was sent to Cartagena (modern day Colombia). Cartagena was the center of the flourishing slave trade in the Americas, where a thousand slaves landed every month. In spite of the condemnations of several popes, a subhuman condition of the slaves prevailed.

Peter became the great apostle to the slaves. He served them by ministering to their physical as well as spiritual needs for over forty years.  He declared himself "the slave of the Negroes forever." During his priesthood, he baptized about 300,000 slaves. He would meet the boats and minister to the bodily needs of these wretched people. He would say, "We have to speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips." He used every possible means to impart knowledge enough for their baptism.

The slave traders hated him as a troublemaker. He was ridiculed and maligned by civil authority, by fellow clergy, and by the wealthy. But at his funeral, amazingly, all these tried to outdo each other in heaping praise on this great servant of God. He died on September 8, 1654.

In today’s first reading, Paul warns against seductive philosophies. He says, "See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental powers of the world…" When we give in to these seductive philosophies we end up being enslaved.

In our times, perhaps the most seductive philosophies are the ones that are the "feel good" type. One claims there is no truth, and no hereafter – no life after death, so make sure you enjoy yourself each day. Another seduction is to imagine that there is no relationship between how we live today and how we shall live in the hereafter. And finally, the major seduction of our times seems to be that any kind of sexual pleasure is perfectly all right, because after all, that is our primary drive.

But our response to all these seductions and falsehoods is that we have been baptized; that is, we were buried and raised to new life with Christ. Therefore, we have been set free from our slavery to sin and death and we live a new life of freedom according to our new dignity as the adopted sons and daughters of God.

Today’s gospel tells of the selection of the first apostles. It is important to note that they were not great intellects, or administrators, or managers, or organizers. They were just ordinary people like you and I. Yet God shows his power and his mighty works by such as these, through the work of such people as Peter Claver and you and I, if we allow him to work through us.