19 May 2020
Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
After inflicting many blows on them, they threw [Paul and Silas] into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. (Acts 16:22-23)
And when [the Advocate] comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:
sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me;
condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. (John 16:8-11)
This city of Philippi, which was to receive one of St. Paul’s most beautiful and loving epistles, was not solely where Paul enjoyed riverside conversations. We hear today how it was also a place of physical suffering at the hands of others, and where for the first time he was cast into prison. Though wounded and in chains, Paul and Silas still think that God should be worshipped in that jail. So, they sing hymns and pray, remembering that the Lord (though unseen) accompanied them there, as is His custom. (Cp. Gen 39:19-23)
Ever been stuck inside with others? Walks outside help, but I have found that being inside most of the day and night with the same eleven people (full of goodness and charity though they really often are) has at times provoked impatience and caused little frustrations to exceed their proper proportions. Yet, one helpful remedy has been what a wise priest once taught us in the novitiate (ie where a Jesuit begins his training): pray for the people you live with, pray for them by name, every day. One lesson of the hiddenness of the Ascension for which we are preparing is that Jesus is not confined to Jerusalem. He is present to each one of us, confined though we may be to our home and other limited spaces.
Let us pray today for the conviction of which our Lord speaks today. Let us ask that the Spirit who comes to us in our confines would show us how we stumble when we fail to believe that He is with us (i.e. sin), how much better we love when we realize God’s (even unseen) presence (i.e. righteousness), and how we are strengthened by that accompaniment of grace against the temptations of what opposes true charity (i.e. condemnation).