Human slavery has existed in almost every culture and religion since ancient times to the present day.

At the beginning of the 19^th century, nearly ¾ of all persons then alive were trapped in slavery against their will. In any form, the very idea that one human being could own another defies our current ideals. We proclaim liberty for all and slavery today is illegal nowadays the world. Yes, it is estimated that there are nearly 30 million people in the world today held in illegal bondage.

The massive, importation of slaves from west Africa to north and South America was especially cruel and inhumane.

Before the English colonized North America, Spain had already begun bringing slaves from Africa and South America.

The largest part of the slave trade was then in the northwest of what is now Columbia, in the city of Cartagena.

It is a familiar, but no less tragic story of a 2 month sea voyage, where as many as half the people died before they reached shore. Once on land, they were bought, sold, and enslaved for life, even as their children were then born into slavery. Until the late 1800s, the evil bondage continued, only to end after much debate and even civil war.

In order to justify slavery, it is necessary that the so-called owners view other human beings less than human.

Few people in history did much to stop slavery, and few people helped individual persons held as slaves. It was not only a thankless task, it was also personally dangerous. Those few courageous people who assisted slaves were often killed.

Human beings are considered heroes who risk their lives for the sake of other.

One such hero is the saint whose feast is today: St Peter Claver, or San Pedro Claver, a Spanish-born Jesuit priest

He was born near Barcelona in 1580. At the age of 30, he was sent to Cartagena to eventually work among the African people who had been kidnapped for work in the gold & silver mines of S. America.

St. Peter did not speak any African language and, as a white man, was not trusted by the Africans, who had no reason to trust people who were as cruel as most were.

St. Peter was also mistrusted by the slave owners and others, including members of the clergy, for his efforts to make life even a little better. Claver worked for 40 years, bringing food, some medicine, some kindness to a people he saw as equal children of the same father.

As so often happens in these cases, when he was ill the last few years of his life, Claver himself was

Ignored even by his own fellow clergy. He was left alone, unable to walk for weeks at a time. When he died, and only then, he was honored with a funeral worthy of a nobleman of great fame.

His life of self-less devotion to other persons, at the price of being rejected not only by his own people, but also by the people he served, is an example of true service.

His story is extraordinary and to some degree demonstrates that real humanity is its own reward. We are called to serve others, even if they don’t like us for it; and especially if we get no reward for it.

The reward comes in due season, often after we have passed from life.

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