Religious Jubilarian Mass 2017

Published: September 9, 2017

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily on the memorial of St. Peter Claver, priest, at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017. It was based on the following readings: Isaiah 61:1-3a and Luke 5:1-11.

Bishop Taylor

As I began to prepare this homily for this jubilee celebration, I reflected on the fact that with just a few exceptions — including the soon-to-be-beatified Father Stanley Rother — most of the canonized saints and beatified persons from the United States are members of religious orders.

That says something, doesn’t it? I think it is also appropriate that this year’s jubilee celebration falls on the feast of St. Peter Claver, who while not from the United States, did serve on the American continent. And like all of our saints, he reached out with special concern for the most needy and desperate people of his time.

In his case, the newly arrived African slaves, whose needs were overwhelming. He first provided them with the food, water and medicine that their bodies needed. And then he began to address their spiritual needs, baptizing over 300,000 slaves over the course of 40 years, teaching them about Christ, giving them hope, making himself — so to speak — a slave of the slaves he served.

He advocated for them in the face of the unspeakably evil system under which they lived, did what he could to defend their rights, usually against overwhelming odds, making himself a persona non grata in the eyes of the plantation owners and the colonial authorities.

But success in God’s eyes is different than success in the eyes of the world, and what St. Peter Claver did succeed in doing was to live out what we just heard in the first reading that was chosen for this Mass: He brought good news to the afflicted, bound up the brokenhearted, proclaimed liberty to captives and release to prisoners — at least spiritually. His presence in their lives was like “a year of favor from the Lord.” That was his mission.

Each of us who has responded to the Lord’s call has a mission too, a call that is unique to us ... different from that of St. Peter Claver in its particulars, but just as necessary in God’s plan. In the Gospel you just heard, also chosen especially for this Mass, we have Peter’s vocation story.

He had other plans, but all that changed when he encountered Jesus, who told him to lower his nets for a catch. When he did so, he caught such a great number of fish that the nets were tearing — sort of parallel to St. Peter Claver’s 300,000 baptisms — for indeed within a few years, Peter would in fact be catching men — and women — as Jesus promised in today’s Gospel.

Isn’t that our story too? Jesus has called us and we have responded. Over the course of 25, 60, 70 and 75 years our jubilarians have been catching men and women — and for that matter, children. Sometimes meeting physical needs like St. Peter Claver: undertaking works of charity, ministering to the sick and advocating for social justice, including the right to life from the first moment of conception to natural death, and access those things necessary for life: a living wage, decent housing, access to health care, no euthanasia, no capital punishment, and so on.

And above all, trying to help people with their spiritual needs: praying for people daily and teaching them about Christ, introducing them to Jesus, interceding for them before the Lord, teaching children and adults, encouraging people and listening with a loving, open heart, advocating for the rights of those who in our society continue to be oppressed, for human rights, for the rights of immigrants, giving people hope.

In other words, making ourselves — so to speak — a slave of the people we serve ... knowing that success in God’s eyes is different than success in the eyes of the world. It involves bringing good news to the afflicted, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to captives and release to prisoners, our presence in people’s lives being like “a year of favor from the Lord.”

Jubilarians, thank you so much for responding so generously to the Lord’s call. Your special witness to holiness is an inspiration to all of us. May the Lord give you the reward of your goodness and continue to work fruitfully through you and in all the years that lie ahead!