RBWords

     Wait a minute! Those words are familiar, but they are from the Gospel According to Luke!  Aren't they the "beatitudes," and weren't they delivered on a mountain?  And where did those negative "woes" come from?  None of those appear in the other account (the Gospel According to Matthew).  Both Luke and Matthew had some of the same materials on hand when they composed their gospel portraits of Jesus.  For Matthew, the portrait of Jesus as a New Moses meant setting the beatitudes on a mountain.  For Luke it meant setting them on a plain in the midst of the people.  In both gospels, the beatitudes appear early as a kind of "platform" for Jesus' teaching and a "manual" for all disciples to internalize as they preach the kingdom with which Jesus has entrusted them (and us!).

     Today is the feast of St. Peter Claver SJ, a Spaniard, who joined the Jesuits in their earliest years and was sent to Colombia in South America where he ministered to African slaves arriving on the shores.  The USA was not the only place where the evil of slavery was manifested.  In his ministry, Peter Claver personified the beatitudes.  He became, justifiably, a patron saint for those who minister in the Black Catholic community.  The current turmoil in our own nation, manifested in the movement, Black Lives Matter, could look to him as an inspiration for renewing our efforts to eliminate racism as a force in American life. Even more are we as disciples of Jesus challenged to eliminate racism as a force in Catholic Christian life!  AMEN