Innocence

It is estimated that Saint Peter Claver personally baptised over three hundred thousand people.

Jesus and the Poor in Spirit (Unknown)

Saint Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit priest.  In the early 17^th century, he was a missionary in Columbia.  When he landed there he decided that he would serve the poor and the slaves.  At the time, that part of the world received ten thousand slaves each year.  And this Saint spent his time working with those slaves.  At the time, people believed that the slave trade was a legitimate and profitable trade.  Saint Peter Claver was different.  He saw in those slaves the people of the beatitudes and spent his time working with them in accordance with the beatitudes. 

“Jesus lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: ‘Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.’” (Luke 6:20-26).

In those poor souls, Saint Peter Claver saw the hungry and the sick and the lonely and the oppressed.  They were “blessed” to him and through his ministry, it is estimated that Saint Peter Claver personally baptised over three hundred thousand people.

And I have been reflecting on that today.  For it seems to me that I have spent a lifetime running away from my responsibilities when I should have been running towards them.  It seems to me that the “blessed” are all around me and instead of running towards them, my eyes glaze over as I walk past them and I do not even see them there.  How many times has Christ Himself cried out to me from the eyes of the poor and oppressed?  And how many times have I been too busy or tired or greedy or self-centred to bother looking their way?

And when I reflect on that today, I am confronted by the example of Saint Peter Claver – or even the more recent example of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  These Saints were human beings – just like me – who turned towards to poor and oppressed rather than away from them.  And these people were the sort of people who did not make excuses – sitting in glass houses.  Instead, they stood up and did what needed to be done.  They got in among it – among the poor and the lonely and the oppressed.  They did not try to avoid the problem, but rather faced it head on.  And that – I believe – makes all the difference…  That decision to see the innocence where it is – right there on the side of the road…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.