Like our ancestors, we live near water. The Genesis story describes water welling up from the earth bringing a garden to life: plants, animals, human beings. From the garden four mighty rivers bring life to other parts of the earth (Genesis 2), even reaching New York, NY.

We bless water in our prayers,:  “All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord…All you seas and rivers, bless the Lord.” (Daniel, 3, 57-58) The baptismal fount in our churches honors water. Some say it’s from the faraway Jordan River. We take it in our hand and bless ourselves with it as we go in and out of church. Water brings blessings from God.

We need “ to thank the Creator for the impressive and marvellous gift of the great waters and all that they contain (cf. Gen 1:20-21; Ps 146:6), and to praise him for covering the earth with the oceans (cf. Ps 104:6), “ Pope Francis says.

Unfortunately, we lose the blessings of water when drought dries up our lands and pollution poisons our rivers and oceans.

Now, wars and disputes over territorial waters increasingly threaten the waters uniting the peoples of the world, endangering the 90% of the world’s trade that takes place by sea– much of it food and necessities for life. We’re also seeing an increase in plunder of the seas as resources become scarce on the land. 

“We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic”, Pope Francis says.  He calls for the ” development and application of international regulations on the seas in order to safeguard individuals, countries, goods, natural resources – I think, for example, of marine fauna and flora, and coral reefs or sea beds – and to guarantee an integral development in view of the common good of the entire human family and not particular interests.”

The map above shows the intricate water system that enables life on the land where I live, the United States of America.The waters near us here in New York are part of that intricate water system. They should bring life. Do they bring about a garden of life?

In my 91 years I’ve watched the waters of New York harbor suffer from massive industrialization during World War 11, unregulated real estate development afterwards along the Newark Bay, the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers. The waters have experienced human greed and neglect. I can remember, way back as a little boy, when you could fish and swim in those waterways. No more.

“Blessed be God for Seas and Rivers.” Pope Francis asks for more than words of a prayer. “Here too, our active commitment is needed to confront this emergency. We need to pray as if everything depended on God’s providence, and work as if everything depended on us.”

         

        

“

Today we remember St. Peter Claver, the Jesuit priest who ministered to slaves in South America in the 17th century. A native of Spain, he came to Cartagena, Colombia in 1610 and died there in 1654. 

Catholic nations like France, Spain and Portugal, early colonizers of North and South America, imported an estimated 11 million Africans from 1519-1867 to work on sugar plantations, mines and farms in the New World. Cartagena was a center of the South American slave trade. Slaves bought in West Africa were transported in ships that made the journey in appalling conditions; about one third died on the 6 or 7 week voyage. 

Peter Claver, enlisting Africans familiar with the various tribal languages and culture, helped the arrivals with food, medicine and the promises of faith. “This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless.”  

Many of these poor human beings accepted Baptism from their hands and became Christian. 

.Peter called himself the “slave of the slaves,”  He pleaded with slave owners on local plantations and mines to treat slaves humanely, but Spain needed gold and colonists appreciated the wealth brought by slavery,

Unfortunately, at the time Catholic and Protestant churches alike hoped slavery might bring happiness and cultural enlightenment to the black race. Church leaders condoned slavery and most of the church’s moralists found reasons to justify the institution.The churches were not alone in condoning slavery, most figures of the enlightenment, convinced of the inferiority of African and native Americans, condoned it too.

By the end of the 19th century the major western powers abolished the institution of slavery.

Pope Leo XIII canonized Peter Claver in 1896 and designated him patron of all Roman Catholic missions to the African peoples. In the USA Catholic liturgical calendar his feast is a memorial, not an optional memorial as it is in the Roman calendar. He reminds the American Catholic Church that racism and slavery were major problems in the New World, and they still are.

A letter of St Peter Claver

The arrival of a slave ship

Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. Carrying two baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what else, we hurried towards them. When we approached their quarters, we thought we were entering another Guinea. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had thought of building up a mound with a mixture of tiles and broken pieces of bricks. This, then, was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them.

We laid aside our cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. In that way we covered a space to which we at last transferred the sick, by forcing a passage through bands of slaves. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. Into this fire we tossed aromatics. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. Then, using our own cloaks, for they had nothing of this sort, and to ask the owners for others would have been a waste of words, we provided for them a smoke treatment, by which they seemed to recover their warmth and the breath of life. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see.

This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. Then we sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with wine. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick.

After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed that they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the rest. We asked them to make an act of contrition and to manifest their detestation of their sins. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language.

O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves and strengthened 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 neighbour 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, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Early Christian paintings of Jesus Christ place a golden halo behind him. He is the Sun of Justice, the Light of the world. A cross is often placed within the halo: his glory is revealed in the mystery of his cross. 

Similarly, saints are often represented with halos. They are images of Jesus Christ, who share in his mission. They are the salt of the earth and bring God’s light to the world.

The morning sun reminds us we are called to be light for our world.

Every Sunday in her morning prayer the church sings the song of Daniel in the lion’s den, where he was cast by the king of Babylon. In this dark place of death, Daniel sings a song of hope with all creation. He joins the whole creation in praising God, the Creator and Redeemer.

How did he see a glorious creation in that dark place in midst of lions? He saw God’s presence, shining through it all. Is that what we are also called to do? 

Sunday is a day for looking at God’s whole creation, the heavens, the earth, the waters, trees and plants, animals wild and tame, men, women and children. The opening to the sky in the painting of the lions’ den seems small, but God’s glory shines on all, in Jesus Christ. 

Sunday is a day to join in Daniel’s song. 

In the Season of Creation, don’t forget Sunday. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples on the day of the sun.  “Very early when the sun had risen on the first day of the week” Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome came to the tomb, Mark tells the Christians of Rome. (Mark 16:2) The other gospels agree: it was “on the first day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead and showed himself to his disciples. (Matt.28:1; Lk24:1; Jn 20:1)

“On the day named after the sun we assemble to hear the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets,” St. Justin (+165)  told the Romans in his Apology. He connected the day of the sun to the day described in Genesis: “the day God transformed darkness and matter and created the world.” Jesus rose from the dead on the day of the sun. 

In the 4th century, Constantine decreed that Sunday, “the venerable day of the sun”, should celebrate Jesus Christ, the Lord. Gradually, Sunday became a special day in the calendar of the Roman world. A day of rest from work of creation to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Exploring the universe today, modern science affirms the role of the heavens in deep time. Billions of years ago, another sun burst asunder, creating atomic remnants that eventually became the universe we live in now. There is no life without the sun. We would not exist without it. Science adds new dimensions to the mystery of Jesus that takes place on Sunday. 

In his encyclical Laudato Si’ Pope Francis saw the rich significance of the creation story in our Sunday celebration:

“On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day that heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the “first day” of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality.” (Ls 237)

“In the Christian understanding of the world, the destiny of all creation is bound up with the mystery of Christ, present from the beginning: “All things have been created though him and for him” (Col 1:16).[80] The prologue of the Gospel of John (1:1-18) reveals Christ’s creative work as the Divine Word (Logos). But then, unexpectedly, the prologue goes on to say that this same Word “became flesh” (Jn 1:14). One Person of the Trinity entered into the created cosmos, throwing in his lot with it, even to the cross. From the beginning of the world, but particularly through the incarnation, the mystery of Christ is at work in a hidden manner in the natural world as a whole, without thereby impinging on its autonomy.” Ls. 237

Every Sunday in morning prayer the church prays Daniel’s canticle calling on all creation to praise God: 

Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.

Praise and exalt him above all forever.

Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord.

You heavens, bless the Lord.

All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord.

All you hosts of the Lord, bless the Lord.

Sun and moon, bless the Lord.

Stars of heaven, bless the Lord.

Every shower and dew, bless the Lord.

All you winds, bless the Lord.

Fire and heat, bless the Lord.

Cold and chill, bless the Lord.

Dew and rain, bless the Lord.

Frost and chill, bless the Lord.

Ice and snow, bless the Lord.

Nights and days, bless the Lord.

Light and darkness, bless the Lord.

Lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord.

Let the earth bless the Lord.

Praise and exalt him above all forever.

Mountains and hills, bless the Lord.

Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord.

You springs, bless the Lord.

Seas and rivers, bless the Lord.

You dolphins and all water creatures, bless the Lord.

All you birds of the air, bless the Lord.

All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord.

You sons of men, bless the Lord.

O Israel, bless the Lord.

Praise and exalt him above all forever.

Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord.

Servants of the Lord, bless the Lord.

Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord.

Holy men of humble heart, bless the Lord.

Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, bless the Lord.

Praise and exalt him above all forever.

Let us bless the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Let us praise and exalt him above all forever.

In his Raising of Lazarus, painted in 1890, Van Gogh replaced the figure of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus with Christ, the Sun of Justice. Christ fills the tomb and the world itself with his life-giving light. 

The woman with outstretched arms and golden hair is bathed in the light. In the gospel account Martha, the sister of Lazarus, proclaims her belief in the words of Jesus. “I am the Resurrection and the life.”

 Van Gogh was a man who experienced the suffering of mental illness. It seems he painted his own face as the face of Lazarus.

On Friday, we remember the mystery of the Passion of Jesus. He is the Sun that never sets. In evening prayer every day, especially on Fridays, the church professes belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus. “We believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.”

“Let us give thanks to the Father, for having made you worthy to share the lot of the saints in light. 

He rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us in the kingdom of his beloved Son.”

(Colossians 1:12 Evening Prayer, wk 4)

God our Father,

the contradiction of the cross proclaims your infinite wisdom. Help us to see that the glory of your Son is revealed in the suffering he freely accepted

Give us faith to claim as our only glory the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…(Friday evening)