Peter out from Prison

 

     Time and again of late I find myself confronted by good people, some laity, some priests, and even bishops, who muse about or suspect that a new and great persecution of the Church is about to fall upon us. To my way of thinking, they speak much too lightly about such a glorious and yet thoroughly horrendous turn of events as the pathway to Church renewal. All those I have encountered, who allude to this visitation, do so either with an air of indifference toward the darkness it would bring or with a certain optimism concerning its good fruits. They seem not to grasp the depth of anguish and suffering visited upon the early Christian martyrs and would seem to pass over the tragedy of sorting out the apostasy through fear of death and suffering, which cast down countless more souls than those who remained faithful to Christ and to His Church, who carried off the crown of martyrdom.  

    Obviously, I am not speaking of the pondered position of George Weigel outlined in his book, EVANGELICAL CATHOLICISM. Even there, though, I find it hard to share the hopes for success which he and others tie, to some extent at least, to reasoned discourse. We too in our day are confronted by hot heads provoking the  rabble and by degenerates like Herod, acting with impunity.

    For some odd reason, from the Acts of the Apostles, the part played by Rhoda in the account of St. Peter's liberation from prison chains came to mind:

    "Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” Meanwhile Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed. He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, “Tell this to James and to the believers.” Then he left and went to another place." (Acts 12: 11-17)

Harper Bibles. NRSV Catholic Edition Bible (p. 1026). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

   

    It is a much less horrific account of how things went down in the early Church than, let us say, the acts of the martyrdom of St. Agatha. There we read of all the attacks both physical and psychological on this little girl, she too protected by her guardian angel and while dying in prison was visited by St. Peter who restored her mutilated body to integrity.

    Nonetheless, Herod's beheading of James and plans to execute Peter, holding him in prison chains, come as another crescendo after the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr of Acts. Mob rage claimed Stephen and Herod's political conniving took James to glory and almost did Peter. How can it be different in our own day and time? How can one not tremble in drawing parallels between the martyrs of then and the possibilities for us now? Our reflective, prayerful reading of the martyrologies should help us get into the skin of people like St. Ignatius of Antioch, eager, yes, but without illusions about what it would mean to be pulverized in the jaws of wild beasts.

 

   What I guess I am missing are those gatherings of the faithful, immersed in prayers of supplication to God on behalf of those on the front lines, the apostles, the confessors, those destined for martyrdom. Maybe Rhoda and company come to mind, because they were not expecting Peter to come knocking in answer to their prayers for his deliverance. Those early believers caught up in earnest prayer were taken off guard by the Divine Mercy. Peter was delivered from a horrible fate and they saw him again and sent him off to another place to hide from Herod.

  

  What are the marks of the apostolic age? Can you pit it against a Christendom in freefall? I do not think I would. In either model, I am looking for the urgent supplication of Rhoda and company, gathered in ceaseless prayer in the house of Mary the mother of John Mark.

    May this Lent be both penitent and insistently prayerful for the community of believers!

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