9/12/2012 – Wednesday of 23rd week in ordinary time - Luke 6:20-26

         Today, in the beatitudes of Luke's Gospel, we hear Jesus address the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are isolated and insulted.  Jesus tells them that they can expect precisely the opposite of their present situations.  This can mean so many different things, both in Jesus' day and in our present day.  We see so many who are poor in trying to struggle to survive here on earth, but many also suffer from poverty of spirit or meaning in their lives.  There are those who hunger for food in their lives, who do not have enough to eat, but also those who hunger for friendship, those who hunger for hope or for a deeper connection to the divine in their lives. 

         As we hear the beatitudes today, I thought of a saint whose feast day is celebrated in this month of September - St. Peter Claver.  Peter was a Jesuit priest originally from Spain who was sent as a missionary to Columbia in the late 16^th century.  He spent much of his ministry for over 40 years on the wharf in the port city of Cartegena, greeting the slaves who came off the slave ships, ministering to their physical & spiritual needs.  When the slaves were taken off their ships and were awaiting to be sold, Peter Claver would bring them food and medicine.  Through interpreters, Peter instructed these slaves in the faith.  It is estimated that he instructed and 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, as I was a lay missionary 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 slave who escaped into the jungle when the ship bound for the port of Cartegena 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. 

         The beatitudes spoke to the reality of Jesus' day and to the reality of the colonial period that confronted Peter Claver in South America; they also 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, & 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 in the beatitudes?  How do we find God inviting us to serve him the proclamation of his kingdom?