Urbino - Statue of Saint Rosa Venerini
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
First Reading:
From: Acts 16:22-34
Imprisonment of Paul and Silas
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[22] The crowd joined in attacking them; and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. [23] And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. [24] Having received this charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
The Baptism of the Jailer
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[25] But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, [26] and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one's fetters were unfastened. [27] When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. [28] But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." [29] And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, [30] and brought them out and said, "Men, what must I do to be saved?" [31] And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." [32] And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. [33] And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once with all his family. [34] Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.
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Commentary:
19-40. This is the first time St Paul comes into conflict with Gentiles. As might be expected, the incident does not take the form of a riot, as happened in cities of Asia Minor (13:50; 14:5, l9), but of a civil suit before local magistrates. The people who bring the charge say nothing about their real reason--loss of profit. They accuse Paul of two things. Their first charge is disturbance of the peace. The second seems to be based on regulations forbidding Roman citizens to practise alien cults, especially where these conflict with Roman custom. They see Paul's exorcism and his preaching as an attempt to propagate what they see as an unacceptable religion. It may well be that the charge also had to do with specific prohibitions on the propagation of Judaism to non-Jews. However, there is no hard evidence that any such prohibition existed; therefore, the charge against Paul must have been based on regulations in the colony separating Roman from alien religious practices.
23. St Paul refers specifically to this punishment in 1 Thess 2:2. It was one of the three beatings mentioned in 2 Cor 11:25.
24. St John Chrysostom, reflecting on the punishment Paul and Silas underwent, sees them as sitting or lying on the ground, covered with wounds caused by the beating. He contrasts this suffering with the way many people avoid anything which involves effort, discomfort or suffering: "How we should weep over the disorders of our time! The apostles were subjected to the worst kinds of tribulation, and here we are, spending our time in search of pleasure and diversion. This pursuit of leisure and pleasure is the cause of our ruin. We do not see the value of suffering even the least injury or insult for love of Jesus Christ.
"Let us remember the tribulations the saints experienced; nothing alarmed them or scared them. Severe humiliations made them tough, enabled them to do God's work. They did not say, if we are preaching Jesus Christ, why does he not come to our rescue?" ("Hom. on Acts", 35).
25. Paul and Silas spend the night praying and singing hymns. Commenting on this passage St John Chrysostom exhorts Christians to do the same and to sanctify night-time rest: "Show by your example that the night-time is not just for recovering the strength of your body: it is also a help in sanctifying your soul. [...] You do not have to say long prayers; one prayer, said well, is enough. [...] Offer God this sacrifice of a moment of prayer and he will reward you" ("Hom. On Acts", 36).
St Bede notes the example Paul and Silas give Christians who are experiencing trials or temptations: "The piety and energy which fires the heart of the apostles expresses itself in prayer and brings them to sing hymns even in prison. Their praise causes the earth to move, the foundations to quake, the doors to open and even their fetters to break. Similarly, that Christian who rejoices when he is happy, let him rejoice also in his weakness, when he is tempted, so that Christ's strength come to his aid. And then let him praise the Lord with hymns, as Paul and Silas did in the darkness of their prison, and sing with the psalmist, 'Thou does encompass me with deliverance' (Ps 32:7)" (St Bede, "Super Act Expositio, ad loc.").
30-34. This incident so affects the jailer with religious awe that he comes to be converted. He has been helped to react in this way as a result of listening to the prayers and hymns of the apostles: "Notice how the jailer reveres the apostles. He opens his heart to them, when he sees the doors of the prison open.
He lights the way further with his torch, but it is another kind of torch that lights up his soul. [...] Then he cleans their wounds, and his soul is cleansed from the filth of sin. On offering them material food, he receives in return a heavenly one. [...] His docility shows that he sincerely believed that all his sins had been forgiven" (Chrysostom, "Hom. on Acts", 36).
A person can meet up with God in all kinds of unexpected situations—in which case he or she needs to have the same kind of docility as the jailer in order to receive the grace of God through the channels which God has established, normally the sacraments.
33. As happened with Lydia and her family, the jailer's household is baptized along with him. Noting that these families probably included children and infants, the Magisterium of the Church finds support here for its teaching that baptism of children is a practice which goes right back to apostolic times and is, as St Augustine says, "a tradition received from the Apostles" (cf. "Instruction on Infant Baptism", 20 October 1980, 4).