Today is the final reading from St Paul’s letter to the Colossians that we will hear in our daily Masses. Today, Paul describes the type of Christian he is encouraging the Colossians to be. St Paul describes the Colossians are the chosen people of God, the holy people whom he loves. Because they are God’s chosen people, they are to be clothed in the values of the Gospel that call out to us: compassion, generosity, humility, gentleness and patience. When we put on Christ at our baptism, when we die in the waters of baptism with Christ and rise to new life with him, these qualities are to become a part of us.
Today, we commemorate St Peter Claver, a great missionary of the Christian faith. A Spaniard, Claver left his home country of Spain in 1610 to become a missionary to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and he never turned back. He arrived in the busy trading port of Cartagena in the present-day country of Colombia. He was ordained a Jesuit priest there in Cartagena in 1615. By the time of his arrival, the slave trade had been established there for many years. He continued the work of another Jesuit priest, Father Alfonso de Sandoval, who had ministered to the slaves there for 40 years before Peter Claver undertook this same ministry. Peter Claver would meet the slave ships and bring them things like medicine, food, and water. In 40 years of ministry, it is estimated that he baptized at least 300,000 slaves into the faith. After 4 years of battling a debilitating illness, Peter Claver died in 1654. Though he often clashed with the governmental authorities in the Spanish colonies during his lifetime, he was given great respect in his public funeral. He was canonized in 1888 and was declared a patron saint of the missions. He shines forth in the light of our Church’s missionary efforts to this day.
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