9/9/2011 – Homily for Friday of 23rd week of ordinary time – St Peter Claver – 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14

        In today’s first reading, we hear Paul writing to his associate Timothy, instructing Timothy as he serves as an adviser for the community of faith that Paul founded in Ephesus.  Paul sees the abundant grace of the Lord at work in his life, as he now is at work as a missionary of the Lord, bringing Christ’s Good News to so many throughout the world, whereas before he was trapped in his own arrogance, in his ignorance and in his unbelief. 

         It is appropriate that we hear about Paul’s thankfulness and graditude in the faith the Lord has bestowed upon him on the feast day of Peter Claver that we celebrate in the Church today.  As Paul was called to be a missionary and evangelizer of the Gospel, so also was the saint we celebrate today.  Peter Claver was a Jesuit priest who was originally from Spain, but he was sent as a missionary to Columbia in the first half of the 16^th century.  He spent much of his ministry for over 40 years on the wharf in the port city of Cartegena, Columbia, greeting the slaves who came off the slave ships, ministering to their physical and spiritual needs.  When the slaves were taken off their ships awaiting to be sold, Peter Claver would bring them food & medicine.  Through interpreters, Peter instructed these slaves in the faith; it is estimated that he instructed & baptized more than 300,000 slaves in his many years of ministry in Columbia.  I personally feel a connection with the story of St. Peter Claver, especially in connection with my lay missionary work in the rainforest jungles of Ecuador for 3 years.  Most of the people of this jungle region on the coast of northern Ecuador were descendants of slaves who escaped into the jungle when their ship bound for Columbia was shipwrecked on the outskirts of that jungle.  The people there lived in extreme poverty, virtually abandoned by their government, with little hope for the future, several centuries after their ancestors fled into the jungle to escape slavery.  Their day-to-day reality is a struggle just to survive. 

            Paul’s missionary work directly addressed the reality that faced the early Church, while Peter Claver very pragmatically and very honestly tried to address the reality that he faced in colonial South America.   Paul’s first letter to Timothy and the example of Peter Claver still speak to us today.  We don't have to look very far in our modern American society to see so many levels of poverty, hunger, isolation, and loneliness.  Peter Claver knew the importance of ministering to others in the midst of their daily reality.  Peter Claver was quoted as saying: “Seek God in all things, & we shall find God by our side.”  How do we hear God speaking to us today?  How do we find God inviting us to serve him in proclamation his kingdom?