Justo Gonzalez, the author of one of the text books for my Global Christian History class, wrote an amazing account of the life of Pedro Claver. The book is called The Story of Christianity (HarperSanFrancisco, 1984). There is much to learn from this man's life, so I'll be spending some time breaking things down in some upcoming blog posts. For now, it would be good to read about his life in entirety. A fair warning ahead of time, this is a little long for a blog post but I promise you it will be well worth the read. Another fair warning, if you strongly believe in prosperity doctrine or American cultural Christianity (with all of its comforts), then you may not want to read this. It may cause you to do something crazy, like give up some of those comforts for the sake of suffering as a follower of Christ. Here is what Gonzalez wrote about this amazing person, Pedro Claver:
Pedro Claver, a great Columbian saint, led a very different life. He was born in 1580, shortly before Beltran's death, and from early youth decided to join the Jesuits and become a missionary to the New World. His superiors thought that he lacked intelligence, and he was still a novice when he arrived at Cartagena in 1610. He had ample opportunity to see the suffering of black slaves, and therefore when he was finally allowed to make his final vows in 1622 he added a further vow to his signature: Petrus Claver, aethiopum semper servus - Pedro Claver, forever a servant of the blacks.
Since the languages the slaves spoke were too many for him to learn, he tried to borrow other slaves to serve as his interpreters. But the slaveholders were not willing to lose the labor of these interpreters, and Claver persuaded his monastery to buy a number of slaves to serve as interpreters. This created friction with his fellow Jesuits, some of whom persisted in treating slaves as such. Claver insisted that these were brothers in Christ, to be treated as equals. Eventually, by sheer stubbornness, he forced the other Jesuits to agree, at least in theory.
As soon as a slave ship arrived, Claver and his interpreters ran to meet it. Sometimes they were allowed to enter the hold of the ship, but most often they had to wait until the slaves had been transferred to the barracks that would be their temporary homes until they were sold. These quarters were not as cramped as the ships, and slaves were now fed more abundantly, in order to prepare them for the auction. Still, many died from the effects of the crossing, or because they refused to eat, fearing that they would be fattened in order to be eaten. Stark naked, the sick and the healthy lay together with the dead on the floor of broken bricks, until Claver and his companions came in and carried out the bodies of the dead. Then they would return with fresh fruit and clothes, and seek out the weakest among the slaves. If these seemed to be seriously ill, Claver would carry them to a small hospital he had built nearby. Then he would return and begin trying to communicate the Gospel to those who were well enough to listen to him.
His methods were dramatic. He gave them water, of which they had not had sufficient supply since they had boarded their ships, and then explained to them that the waters of baptism quench the thirst of the soul. Getting together a group who spoke the same language, Claver would sit them in a circle, sit among them, and give the only chair to the interpreter, who sat in the center and explained to the bewildered slaves the rudiments of the Christian faith. Sometimes he would tell them that, just as a snake changes its skin as it grows, so must one change one's life at baptism. he would then pinch himself all over, as if he were removing his skin, and explain to them the characeristics of the old life that must be left behind. Sometimes, in order to show their assent, they too would pinch themselves. At other times he explained the doctrine of the Trinity by folding a handkerchief so that three corners could be seen, and then showing that it was a single piece of cloth. This was all done in a warm spirit of friendliness and sometimes even humor.
Claver's concern, which was first shown at the arrival of the slave ships, was evident in many other ways. Since leprosy was a common disease among slaves, and those who had it were simply expelled by their masters, Claver founded a leprosarium where he spent most of his time when there were no slave ships in the bay, and or slaves in the barracks waiting to be sold. There he was often seen embracing and trying to console a poor leper whose rotting body made others shy away. Also, during the years of his ministry there were three outbreaks of smallpox in Cartagena, and in all three occasions Claver took upon himself the task of cleaning the sores of infected blacks, who had been cast out to die.
Although his superiors always considered him unintelligent, Claver knew full well how far he could go before the white population of Cartagena would crush his ministry. He never attacked or criticized the whites, but the entire city knew that as he walked along the streets he only greeted blacks and those few whites who supported his work. He soon let it be known that when he heard confessions he would follow an inverse order to that of society, listening first to the slaves, then to the poor, and finally to the children. Those who did not fall in any of these categories would do better to find another confessor.
He found much support among the slaves of Cartagena. On the great festivities of the church, some of these slaves helped him prepare banquets for the lepers, slaves, and beggars of the city. Others took up the ministry of giving decent burial to deceased slaves. Still others visited the sick, gathered fruit for the hungry and for the recent arrivals, collected and mended clothing, and in many other ways ministered to their fellow slaves.
During most of this time, white society in Cartagena paid little attention to this strange Jesuit who spent most of his time among the slaves. Those who had anything to do with him mostly tried to dissuade him from his labors, for they feared that giving the slaves a sense of dignity was a dangerous thing to do. His superiors were constantly sending reports to Spain, to the effect that Father Claver had neither prudence nor intelligence.
Towards the end of his days, he was struck by a paralyzing disease and was hardly able to leave his cell. His last outing took him to the pier, where his eyes filled with tears before so much pain that he could no longer assuage. His fellow Jesuits trusted his care to a slave, and Claver had to suffer in his own flesh the consequences of the evil that his race had inflicted upon the black race, for the slave treated him cruelly, letting him lie in his own filth and in many other ways reproducing on his sickbed many of the tortures of the slaves' Atlantic passage.
At the very last moment, Cartagena realized that a saint was about the pass away. The cream of society came to visit him in his cell, and all wanted to caray away a relic. Not even his crucifix was left to the poor Jesuit, for when a marquis declared that he wanted it Claver's superiors ordered him to relinquish it. His death, in 1654, was bemoaned by many who had scorned him while he lived. More than two hundred years later, his name was added to the official list of Catholic saints.
No comments:
Post a Comment