September 9, 2026 Wednesday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time or Optional Memorial of Saint Peter Claver Gospel: Lk 6:20-26
Today is Wednesday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time. Today the Church celebrates the optional memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest. The recently published Roman Missal tells us: “Saint Peter Claver (1580–1654) was born at Verdú in Catalonia, Spain, and entered the Society of Jesus. In 1610 he was sent to Colombia and began his life’s work among the slaves. During his thirty-three years of tireless ministry, he cared for them and baptized more than 300,000.”
Today, the passage taken from the Gospel of Saint Luke presents to us the four Beatitudes that Jesus spoke to his disciples, together with the end that awaits those who follow the outlook and values of this passing world. I would like to take this opportunity to offer some further reflections.
We often regard poverty, hunger, weeping, being hated, excluded, and insulted, and being spoken against as a series of negative things. For it seems to us that, in order to survive in this world, we must accumulate more wealth, so that we may not go hungry, so that we may not weep for lack of material things, and so that the world may pursue us on account of our material abundance and the social status built up for us by the goods we have stored away. Whenever such thoughts arise in our hearts, we have not yet entered the world of God; our thinking still remains in this passing world.
What does Jesus mean by poverty, hunger, weeping, being hated, excluded, insulted, and even having our name spoken of as something hateful on account of him? Jesus does not desire that we should suffer poverty, endure hunger, weep continually, be hated, excluded, or insulted, or be condemned on his account. Rather, he desires that each of us should establish anew a right set of values and a right outlook on the world.
What are the values and the outlook that Jesus wishes to teach us?
First: Jesus wishes to tell us that everything we now possess was created by God. We were made in the image of God — that is, according to the image of God. We were created not merely to enjoy all that God has made, but rather “to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Cf. Gn 1:27-28). This is the outlook on the world that Jesus wishes to teach us.
Second: Jesus wishes to tell us that if we place the center and focus of our lives upon this passing world, then we have not stored up treasure for ourselves in heaven. Even if we were to possess the whole world, yet when we come to the end of this life, all that we now possess cannot help us to enter the world of God; on the contrary, it becomes a burden that hinders us from entering the world of God of which Jesus speaks. This is the value system that Jesus wishes to teach us.
Third: Jesus wishes to tell us that if we follow the outlook and values he teaches us, we are inevitably destined to embark upon an extraordinary path. Those who follow the logic of this passing world will inevitably insult us, hate us, exclude us, and even condemn us, regarding our name as something hateful. If we look upon all this as a heavy burden, that only shows that we have not fully understood the teaching of Jesus. But if we regard all this as a sign that we are with Jesus, then we belong to the world of which Jesus speaks, for our thoughts, our words, and our deeds are in harmony with Jesus and the world in which he dwells.
O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves and strenghtened him with wonderful charity and patience as he came to their help, grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ, we may love our neighbor in deeds and in truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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