Today is May 27, Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter.
Today’s Mass gives us one of the most moving moments from the Acts of the Apostles. After a miraculous event shakes the prison where Paul and Silas are being held, we read: “Paul shouted out in a loud voice, ‘Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.’ He asked for a light and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved'” (Acts 16:29-31).
This is an astonishing scene. The jailer, convinced that his life is over, prepares to take his own life. But St. Paul, with deep compassion, intervenes. Rather than seizing the opportunity to escape, Paul stays — choosing the good of the man who had imprisoned him over his own freedom. Paul’s words stop the jailer in his tracks and open the door to his conversion.
This is charity.
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that charity is the form of all the virtues. That is, charity gives life and shape to every other virtue. Without it, our good actions lack true meaning and power. As St. Paul writes elsewhere, “If I have not love, I am nothing.”
Practicing Christ-like charity
Paul doesn’t simply show kindness — he demonstrates the kind of radical, Christ-like charity that seeks the salvation of the other, even at personal cost. He sees the jailer not as an enemy but as a soul in need of hope.
The jailer’s fear, both natural and spiritual, is transformed through Paul’s loving intervention. This moment of terror becomes a moment of grace. The jailer’s fear becomes the path to his encounter with Christ.
This, friends, is the pattern for all of us.
The fears that grip us — fear of failure, of loneliness, of unworthiness — can be transformed when they meet the charity of Christ and when we show that same charity to one another. Rather than being an obstacle to grace, fear can become a doorway to God if only someone — like Paul — loves enough to reach through it.
Let’s ask the Lord today for the grace of charity. May we be ready, like St. Paul, to respond to others with love, even when it costs us. And may our love bring others into the light of faith.
Let us pray,
Grant, almighty and merciful God, that we may in truth receive a share in the Resurrection of Christ your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
