Gospel: September 9, 2025

September 9, 2025 (Tuesday)

23rd Week in Ordinary Time

Psalter: Week 3 (Green/White)

St. Peter Claver, priest

Ps 145:1b-2, 8-9, 10-11

The Lord is compassionate toward all his works.

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1st Reading: Colossians 2:6-15

Gospel: Luke 6:12-19

At this time, Jesus went out into the hills to pray, spending the whole night in prayer with God. When day came, he called his disciples to him, and chose Twelve of them, whom he called ‘apostles’: Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James son of Alpheus and Simon called the Zealot; Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who would be the traitor. Coming down the hill with them, Jesus stood in an open plain. Many of his disciples were there, and a large crowd of people, who had come from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem, and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. They gathered to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And people troubled by unclean spirits were cured. The entire crowd tried to touch him, because of the power that went out from him and healed them all.

Reflection:

“God gave you life with Christ.”

Saint Peter Claver was a seventeenth century Spanish Jesuit who is the patron saint of enslaved people, the Republic of Colombia, and African Americans. He was deeply disturbed by the harsh treatment of the black enslaved people brought from Africa to the New World for gold and silver mining, and so he dedicated most of his ministry to caring for their welfare and advocating for their rights, personally catechizing and baptizing 300,000 slaves. Once baptized, Saint Peter Claver would ensure that they received their Christian and civil rights. He would refuse the hospitality of the plantation owners and would often sleep in the same lodgings as the slaves. Saint Paul says, “God gave you life with Christ.” We see this in the life of Saint Peter Claver. His whole life is a revelation of his union with Christ since he lived completely for others. That union also produced miracles, since, like the crowd trying to touch Jesus for healing, the slaves would seek healing from Peter Claver. He would board the slave ships to tend to the sick, and it was said that if he covered someone with the cloak he was wearing, that person would be healed.