How do we keep the Sabbath holy? How do we follow God’s commandments? For Jesus, the Sabbath is about the way we honor God by doing God and
respecting life. The Pharisees had their own legalistic view of what it means to honor the
Sabbath.
When we think about honoring God and keeping his day holy, the saint we
celebrate today might be a good example for us. In the age of the explorers & the
Spanish conquistadors, many young men were leaving Europe for Asia, Africa,
& the Americas in order to seek out a fortune & to become rich in a
very material way. Peter Claver, a young Jesuit priest, arrived
in Cartagena, a port city in the county of Columbia, in the early 17th
century in order to minister to the slaves who were brought there to work in
the fields & the mines.
When the slave ships entered the port, Peter
Claver would go aboard in order to minister to them. They were exhausted & had been
ill-treated on the long journey from Africa. After they were herded out of the ships and
shut up in nearby yards for buyers to inspect them for purchase, Peter Claver
would bring them medicines, food, bread, and other items that would help them
survive in this new land. With the help of interpreters, he gave the
slaves basic instructions in the faith; he assured them of their human dignity and the salvation that awaited them in God's kingdom. Although its hard to imagine, during the 40
years of his ministry in Columbia, it is estimated that Claver baptized more
300,000 slaves. Peter also preached missions to many in
Cartagena, including the sailors, the tradesmen, and those living in the
countryside, being a witness for social justice & the values of the
Gospel.
With Peter Claver as a good example for us,
we might want to reflect upon how we ourselves keep the Sabbath holy and honor
God and his commandments in our lives.
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