Today we celebrate the feast of St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit, who is the patron saint of slaves and patron also of the ministry to African Americans. He used to cater to the needs of slaves who landed on the shores of Colombia, after being trafficked from Africa in inhuman conditions. He used to reach out to them days and weeks without end. There were days when he was so tired that he could not actually make himself available to the needs of the slaves. On one such occasion, a legend goes that he imagined that there were two of himself and so dialogued with himself, and one Peter Claver would replace the other in dialogue! (Similar to our modern day "hot seat" exercise). Today we describe this as his way of sharing in the suffering of Christ and thereby participating in Christ's mission.

The Gospel reading speaks of how the Son of Man becomes the Lord of the Sabbath by standing by His hungry disciples. The mystery of incarnation becomes tangible in events such as these, when Our Lord acknowledges the hunger of His disciples. St. Peter Claver preached Christ by serving the battered slaves and restoring human dignity to them.