Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Lectionary: 292

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas,
and the magistrates had them stripped
and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
After inflicting many blows on them,
they threw them into prison
and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.
When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell
and secured their feet to a stake.

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened…

The story of the apostles’ singing in their prison cell after a day of humiliations and beatings might be totally implausible if we did not know people do this sort of thing often.

During World War II Christians, Catholics and Jews managed to worship God in the prison camps. Corrie Ten Boom, in The Hiding Place, spoke of the freedom she and other women prisoners enjoyed in their flea infested barracks. The vermin drove the guards out, leaving the prisoners to study scripture, pray and encourage one another. Saint Maximillian Kolbe administered the Sacrament of Penance to his fellow prisoners as they were starved to death. He also led them in singing, prayers and litanies. Several of the Ugandan Martyrs, when they realized their buddies had been marched out of town toward the place of execution, hurried to catch up. Stories like these demonstrate the work of the Holy Spirit.

No one can say how they might react if they were ostracized, harassed or arrested for being Christian. Most of us have embarrassing memories of losing our tempers, abusive language and insane behavior under less challenging circumstances. We don’t suppose we might pass that test very easily.

But we also pray with the saints and martyrs that God will give us a measure of their spirit. We make sacrifices for others, we put up with a certain amount of disappointment and frustration. We might be surprised by the gentleness that comes over us when the Holy Spirit moves us.

Saint Paul and his crew were used to hardship. They traveled on foot from town to town with few provisions. He was sometimes hungry, sometimes cold and miserable, and sometimes desperately ill. He suffered shipwrecks and other misfortunes. The more he suffered the more he experienced God’s protection and direction.

We might not face persecution for being Christian, but we can and should pray for those who do. We should beg God to give us his Spirit so that our entire Church – both that which is secure and that which is oppressed – may be alive with the Fire of God. When we sing we sing with and for those who are imprisoned; when we receive the Eucharist we receive it for those whose churches are closed, whose priests have been sent out of the country. We might be surprised when our jailers and fellow prisoners join us in song.