Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 9, 2021
Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say, love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
2Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
Jesus’ blunt command to love your enemies is not only a hard saying, but may also seem hardly comprehensible, at least to those of us who hear his words at a remove of some two millennia. After all, how can he command emotions? And even if one did manage to muster such feelings, would not that change itself imply that the other is no longer foe but friend? Is the point simply to be outgoing or friendly and win people over whatever the cost?
It is sobering to recall that this is the teaching of a man who ultimately found himself nailed to a Roman cross, surrounded by enemies on many fronts, who had pled with the Father desperately, yet in vain, to let this cup pass. This brute historical fact tells against an overly sentimental or easy-going view of the love he is enjoining. No, this love commandment has a sharp edge. It entails willing the good of the other, including an enemy or persecutor, no matter the emotional turmoil of the moment and regardless of whether the other comes around and sees the light or even lays down his sword.
It is a hard saying, to be sure, but even harder in the doing. The commandment itself is unnervingly open-ended and uncompromising, without escape clauses or hedges that typically soften the pinch of the more exigent laws in the Torah. In a word (two words in his native Aramaic), Jesus drops the hammer on our elaborately crafted narratives of self-justification and self-preservation, leaving one naked and alone before God (or alternatively, before the void or nothingness of death). It is no wonder that some people that sought out this famous preacher from Galilee would balk at the boldness of his message—what about us?
Prayer
Lord God, whose love is our forgiveness, teach us that forgiveness is not about you changing hearts but about us changing from a rock-hard heart to a human heart. Jesus on the cross said what we too should say of everyone who offends us: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Let us love the sinner but hate the sin. Love recognizes that loved people love people and only hurt people hurt people. Help us to comprehend your fatherly love that is your merciful forgiveness.
Saint of the Day
St. Peter Claver is known for tirelessly caring for victims of the slave trade.
He was born 1581 in Catalonia, Spain, and was a bright student. After graduating from university with honors, he followed a call to the priesthood, entered the Jesuit order, and was sent to care for people in the New World. He landed in Cartagena, Colombia, and was ordained a priest there in 1615.
When he arrived, the slave trade had been established for nearly 100 years; Cartagena was a port that received many slaves captured from Congo and Angola. The conditions under which slaves were transported to the New World were horrific—a third died on the voyage. In spite of all this, some 10,000 slaves entered the Americas through Cartagena every year.
Peter Claver attached himself to work with a priest who was caring for the physical and spiritual needs of those enslaved. Though Peter was shy and introverted, he was methodical and organized and he gathered people to help him meet slave ships when they arrived in port.
When the enslaved disembarked, they were herded into a confined space for sorting. They had spent weeks locked in the ship’s hold and suffered greatly from inhuman treatment and the easy spread of illness. Peter and his band of helpers would carry medicine, food, bread, lemons, tobacco, and anything else they could get their hands on to be of aid.
“We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips,” Peter Claver said. He called himself the “slave of the slaves forever.”
He found interpreters who knew different African native languages and dialects and taught the enslaved about the Christian faith and the love of God. He tried to restore in them a sense of their human dignity, even though they had been degraded by their captors. He visited plantations to advocate for better conditions and even worked for the conversion of the slave owners. He served some 300,000 slaves in 40 years of service.
Peter Claver also would visit hospitals in Cartagena to care for the sick and poor there, and paid special attention to the imprisoned. It is said that no one faced the death penalty in Cartagena without Peter Claver present to give him consolation.
He was a sought-after confessor and would sometimes spend 15 hours a day hearing confessions. He would travel through the countryside to preach missions at parishes but would make a point of staying in the slaves’ quarters, not in the comfortable plantation homes. He preached in town squares, and his words were accompanied by the gifts of miracles and prophecy.
In 1650 he fell ill with a plague that was ravaging the region. He barely survived and spent the last few years of his life in pain. Trembling shook his body so much that he often could not even celebrate Mass. He was confined to his room and was often neglected or forgotten in the confusion of the crisis of the epidemic.
He died on this date in 1654, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. The image of liberated chains stands as a symbol for St. Peter Claver on the Eck Hall of Law. He is the patron saint of African-Americans and those who work for interracial justice.
St. Peter Claver, patron saint of African-Americans, you cared for slaves as they arrived from Africa—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Peter Claver is available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Last accessed April 3, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
