Peter's Rescue (Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul)

Click here for this Sunday’s readings

Acts 12 relates the persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem under Herod Agrippa, who did so to curry favour with the Jews, as well as to prevent political unrest and potential Roman involvement. We witness the death of James, son of Zebedee and brother of John, who was one of Jesus’ inner circle. His death was a major turning point in the life of the Church, as it had lost one of its most important early leaders.

In God’s providence, although James was killed, Peter was spared the same fate, as Herod decided to arrest him and stay his execution until after the Passover. This allowed the angel of the Lord to come and release Peter from prison. This is the second time an angel had released him from prison (the first time being Acts 5:19-21), but Peter had apparently mistaken this for a vision rather than a real rescue, only being convinced of its reality after he was out of prison.

This rescue had taken place after the church had been praying for him (v. 5), which shows the power of intercessory prayer. It also shows how God can intervene to rescue believers from danger. Although He does not always act such (hence the many martyrs who were not delivered from danger), He is able to act according to His pleasure, and must continually trust that He will do what is best in His infinite wisdom.

This feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, we rejoice in God’s miraculous work in the life of St. Peter. We recognize how God had preserved him from danger because he still had much work to do in leading the Church, until the time finally came when he too would receive the crown of martyrdom in Rome.

J. Luis Dizon