Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 9, 2022
Jesus told his disciples a parable:
“Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”
When Jesus says, “You hypocrite!” I picture an exhausted and frustrated teacher, fresh off his penultimate Sermon on the Mount, tired of his followers not getting it—not to mention the ongoing tension of the Pharisees scrutinizing his every action for wrongdoing.
I feel him saying, “Don’t you get it?! My message is simple. Love God with all you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself! Wake up, people!” I’m struck by feelings of shame and unworthiness. How can I call myself a Christian when I criticize your splinter and ignore the log in my own eye time and time again?
My favorite class at ND was an intro to anthropology. Although I’ve studied and practiced business for about 30 years, my curiosity for anthropology, sociology, and psychology has always remained.
One idea I have read about has a curious connection to today’s gospel: Social science research suggests human evolution favored self-righteous hypocrites. This unattractive trait enabled us to survive and thrive. It checks out.
Many of us learned early in life that high self-esteem and moral righteousness are keys to happiness and success. Yet, if we are not careful, a negative side-effect is an inability to see our faults alongside others.
I invite us all to continue to pray over this challenge—to remember we are God’s beloved, in whom God is well-pleased. Let us all feel love and forgiveness wrapping around us like a huge hug, for the mere act of trying is what pleases God.
Jesus, please help us find the humility in our confidence and the self-love in our fear so that we may see, embrace, and forgive our imperfections and treat others with the same compassion.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I place myself in your presence. I have set aside this moment so I can listen to your direction for this day. I believe that you are present with all the graces I need. I hope in you, Lord, because only in You can I eternally trust. Give me the awareness and courage to remove the beam from my eye that I might love you more dearly, see you more clearly, and follow you more nearly.
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. His image is used here with permission from Catholic.org, and 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!