Homilies on Acts 36.1–36.2

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and …” What could equal these souls? They had been scourged and had received many blows, they had been insulted, they had been in danger of their lives, they had been fastened in the stocks, in the inner prison; and not even so would they consent to sleep, but kept vigil all night. Do you see how great a good affliction is? But we, though we lie on soft beds and fear no one, sleep the whole night through. Perhaps they kept vigil for this very reason, because they were in these straits. The tyranny of sleep did not seize them, pain did not bend them, fear did not throw them into perplexity; rather, these very things roused them all the more and filled them with great pleasure. “About midnight they were singing hymns to God,” he says, “and the prisoners were listening to them”; for it seemed strange and astonishing. “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” There was an earthquake, so that he might be woken; and the doors were opened, so that he might marvel at what had happened. The prisoners did not see these things; otherwise they would all have fled. “When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison open, …” “But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’” He marveled rather at Paul’s love for humankind; he was struck by his courage, that though he could have fled he did not flee, and that he kept him from killing himself. “And calling for lights he rushed in, and trembling he fell down before Paul and Silas; and bringing them outside he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’” Do you see how the miracle won him? “And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” By speaking to him at once they showed their love toward him. “And he took them that same hour of the night and washed them from their wounds; and he was baptized, he and all his, immediately.” And bringing them into his house, he set a table before them, as though repaying the favor and honoring them by what he did. “When it was day, the magistrates sent the lictors, saying, ‘Release those men.’” The magistrates had probably learned what had happened, and did not dare to release them on their own authority. “And the jailer reported these words to Paul: ‘The magistrates have sent word that you should be released. Now therefore come out and go in peace.’ But Paul said to them, ‘They beat us … do they throw us out secretly? No indeed; let them come themselves and bring us out.’ The lictors reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and pleaded with them, and bringing them out they asked them to leave the city. And coming out of the prison they went to Lydia’s house, and when they had seen the brothers they encouraged them, and …” Even when the magistrates have made it known, Paul does not go out: perhaps because of Lydia and the other brothers; or else fearing for them, lest they be thought to have begged to be released, and so that they might also set the others in boldness. The charge, beloved, was threefold: that they had thrown men who were Romans, uncondemned, and publicly, into prison. You see that they also arranged many things in a human way. Let us examine these nights of ours against that night: nights where there are revels and drunkenness and debauchery, where there is a sleep no different from death, where there are wakings worse than sleep. For some sleep without feeling, while others are awake pitiably and wretchedly, stitching together deceits, anxious about money, eager to avenge themselves on those who have wronged them, nursing enmity, going over the insulting words of the day; so they stir up the fire of anger, doing what is unbearable. Consider how Peter slept. That happened by dispensation: for the angel came, and no one was to see what happened. And this again was well done, so that the jailer might be kept from killing himself. And why did no other sign happen? Because this one was most able to draw him and persuade him, since he himself would have been in danger had it not happened; for miracles do not win us so much as those that bear on our own safety. Lest the earthquake seem to have happened by chance, this too followed, bearing witness to it. And it happens at night; for they did nothing for display, but everything for salvation. The jailer was not wicked: he threw them into the inner prison because he had received such an order, not on his own initiative. And why did Paul not cry out before this? The man was full of confusion and turmoil, and would not have listened. Therefore, when he saw him about to kill himself, he anticipates him and cries out, saying, “We are all here.” Therefore also “calling for lights he rushed in, and fell down before Paul,” it says, “and Silas.” The jailer falls at the feet of the prisoner. And he brings them outside and says, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” What then did they say? See him, not content because he had been saved in this, but struck with amazement at the power.

Do you see what happened there, and what here? There a slave girl was freed from a spirit, and they threw them into prison because they had freed her from the demon; here they only showed him open doors, and he opened the doors of his heart, loosed a double bond, lit that other light; for the light in his heart was shining. And he rushed in and fell down, and he does not ask, “How did this happen? What has happened?” but at once he says, “What must I do to be saved?” What then does Paul say? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,” he says, “you and your household.” This above all draws people: that their household too is saved. “And they spoke the word to him and to all who were in his house.” He washed them, and he was washed: them he washed from their wounds, and he himself was washed from his sins; he fed them and was fed. “And he rejoiced,” it says; and yet there was nothing to see, only words and good hopes. This was a sign that he had believed, that he had been released from everything. What is worse than a jailer? What more savage, what more brutal? Yet he received them with much honor. He was glad not because he had been saved, but “having believed in God.” “Believe,” he says, “in the Lord.” That is why it said, “having believed in God.” … So that he might not seem to be released as a condemned man and as one who had done wrong, that is why they say, “They beat us … into prison,” so that the matter might be not only of grace but also of their own doing. See grace managing things in different ways: how that one went out, and how this one, though both were apostles. “They were afraid,” it says. They are afraid because they were Romans, not because they had thrown them in unjustly. “And they asked them to leave the city.” This was the favor they asked. And they went to Lydia, and when they had strengthened her, they went out; for they must not leave their hostess in struggle and anxiety. And they went out not in obedience to those men, but hastening on to the preaching, since the city had been sufficiently benefited by the miracle; for they ought not to stay any longer. For the miracle appears greater, and cries out more loudly, when those who worked it have gone away; for the jailer’s faith served as a voice. What equals this? He is bound, and though bound he looses; he looses a double bond: by being bound he loosed the one who bound him. Truly these are the works of grace. “Now therefore,” he says, “come out and go in peace”; that is, in safety, fearing nothing. Besides, they also want this man to be out of danger, so that he would not be accused afterward. And they do not say, “They beat us and threw us into prison, though we had worked miracles”; for those men paid no attention to these; but what could most shake their minds: “uncondemned,” he says, “and being Romans.” Let us always remember this prisoner, not the miracle. What will the Greeks say? How did a prisoner persuade the jailer? “And whom,” one says, “should we expect to be persuaded, but a vile and wretched man without sense, full of countless evils and easily led?” They bring this forward too: “Who believed, but a tanner, a eunuch, a jailer, slaves and women?” What then will they be able to say, when we bring forward those in high rank as well: the centurion, the proconsul, those from that time until now, the rulers themselves, the emperors? But I say something greater than this: let us look at the humble themselves. “And where is the wonder?” one says. This indeed is wonderful. For if someone is persuaded about ordinary things, it is no wonder; but when someone speaks with humble men about resurrection, about the kingdom of heaven, about a life of philosophy, and persuades them, it will be more wonderful than if he persuaded the wise. For when there is no danger and someone persuades, they rightly bring folly forward; but when he says to a slave, for example, “If you are persuaded by me, you are in danger, you will have everyone as enemies, you must die, suffer countless evils,” and then even so wins that man’s soul, this is no longer folly. If the doctrines held pleasure, one might reasonably have said this; but if the slave learns what philosophers would not have chosen to learn, the wonder is greater. And if you like, let us bring forward the tanner himself and see what Peter discussed with him; or, if you wish, this very jailer. What then did Paul say to him? “That Christ is risen,” one says, “that there is a resurrection of the dead, that there is a kingdom; and he persuaded him easily, since he was easily led.” What then? Did he say nothing about life, that one must be self-controlled, must master money, must not be cruel, must give one’s own to others? Surely to be persuaded of these things is not folly, but the mark of a great soul. Grant that they accepted the doctrines rather out of folly; but to accept so philosophic a life, what sort of folly was that? So the more foolish the one persuaded, if he is persuaded of things that not even philosophers could persuade philosophers of, the greater the wonder becomes, especially when women and slaves too are persuaded and show by their deeds what the Platos and all those men could persuade no one of. And why do I say “no one”? Not even themselves. For that one must despise money Plato “persuaded” them, after providing himself with so much property, a great mass of money, gold rings and cups. That one must despise the glory that comes from the many, Socrates shows them, though he philosophizes endlessly about it; for he did everything with an eye to glory. And if you were acquainted with that man’s writings, I would have raised much discussion about these things and shown the great irony among them, if one must believe what his disciple says, and how all his writings have vainglory as their theme. But leaving them, let us talk to ourselves. For besides what has been said, this too can be said: that they were persuaded of these things even in the face of dangers. So do not be shameless; but let us think of that night, the stocks, the hymns, and let us too be eager to do this, and we shall open for ourselves not a prison but heaven. If we pray, we shall be able to open even heaven. Elijah both shut and opened heaven by prayer. There is a prison in heaven too: “Whatever you bind on earth,” he says, “will be bound in heaven.” Let us pray at night, and we shall loose these bonds. That prayers loose sins, let the widow persuade us; let that friend persuade us who persisted at the dead of night and kept knocking; let Cornelius persuade us: “Your prayers,” it says, “and your alms have gone up before God”; let Paul persuade us, saying, “She who is truly a widow and left alone has set her hope on God and continues in supplications night and day.” If he says this about a widow, a weak woman, much more about men. I have spoken to you of this already, and I will say it now: let us rouse ourselves at night. Even if you do not make many prayers, make one with sobriety, and it is enough; I demand nothing more. And if not at midnight, then at least at the very break of dawn. Show that the night is not for the body only but also for the soul; do not let it pass idly, but give the Master this return; or rather, it comes round to you. Tell me: if we fell into a hard situation, whom do we not entreat? And if we quickly obtain our request, we breathe again. What a gift it would be, that the one entreated should be ready, and grateful to you for entreating him! What a gift, not to go about looking for someone to entreat, but to find him ready, and not to need others in order to entreat him through them? What is greater than this? For he does it most of all when we do not ask others; just as a true friend reproaches us most of all for not trusting his friendship when we ask others to plead with him for us. So we too do with those who entreat us: we grant them favors most when they come to us themselves and not through others. “What then,” one says, “if I have offended him?” Stop offending, and weep, and so approach, and you will quickly make him gracious toward what is past. Only say, “I have offended”; say it from the soul and with a sincere mind, and all is undone. You do not desire your sins to be forgiven you as much as he himself desires to forgive your sins. For that you do not desire it, consider that you will not consent to keep vigil or to part with money; but he, in order to forgive our sins, did not spare his Only-begotten, his own true Son, who shares his throne. Do you see that he desires more to forgive you your sins? Let us not then hang back or put it off. He loves humankind and is good; only let us give him an occasion, and this so that we may not be useless, since even without this he would have released us. But just as we, in dealing with our servants, invent and contrive countless things, so he too does in the matter of our salvation. “Let us come before his face with confession,” for he is kind and gentle. But if you do not call on him in truth, and will not say from the heart that you have …, but only from the mouth, what will he do? What is it to call on him in truth? With deliberate choice, with eagerness, with a sincere mind; as they say of perfumes, “It is genuine, it has nothing adulterated in it,” so too there. One who truly calls on him and truly entreats him waits on him continually and does not leave until he receives; but one who merely discharges a formality, and fulfills a law in this very act, does not call on him in truth. Whoever you are, do not only say that you … ; do not say it only, but grieve as well. If you grieve, you are earnest; if you are not earnest, you do not grieve; if you do not grieve, you are mocking. Who that says, “I am sick,” does not do everything to be rid of it? Prayer is a great weapon. “If you,” he says, “know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father?” Why will you not approach? He loves you, he is more able than all; he both wills and is able; what hinders? Nothing. So let us approach with faith; let us approach bringing the gifts he wants: the forgiving of injuries, kindness, gentleness. Even if you are a sinner, you will ask him boldly for the pardon of your sins, since you can show that this has been done on your part; but if you are righteous and do not have this, the forgiving of injuries, you have gained nothing. It is not possible for a man who has forgiven his neighbor not to obtain full forgiveness; for God is incomparably more kind than we; this is plain to everyone. What do you say? If you say, “I was wronged, I mastered my anger, I bore the insult of rage for the sake of your command,” will he not forgive too? He will certainly forgive. So let us cleanse the soul of resentment. This is enough for us to be heard; and let us pray with sobriety and great perseverance, so that, enjoying his abundant love for humankind, we may be counted worthy of the good things promised, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen. [Homily 37] “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And as was Paul’s custom, he went in to them, and for three sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and showing that the Christ had to suffer and