Friday, 15th Week of Ordinary Time

Acts 24:25-25:12
Morning Prayer

Two years. Two years Paul waits in Caesarea while Felix sits on his case, knowing he can’t throw a Roman citizen to the wolves, but not wanting to give the locals an excuse to complain about him to Caesar by setting Paul free. And so Paul waited, and waited. How often did he remember the vision he had seen of his Lord promising him, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome”? He had hoped to be in Jerusalem for only a few days before making his way to Rome. That’s what he had written to the Romans. Two years.

I’m sure that like all of us, Paul wondered how exactly God was going to answer his prayer. He had prayed to go to Rome, and then to Spain, to the western end of the earth. To do that, he needed to be free. But as he sat in Caesarea for those two years, he must have realized that he was going to be a ball batted back and forth between Roman governors and Jewish elders. And even if the new Governor committed a miraculous act of political courage and released Paul, would Paul survive the murderous plots sure to be hatched in Jerusalem?

After two long years of prayer and discernment, Paul had come to understand that God’s answer was going to have to come in a way that Paul might not have picked, but was a clear answer nonetheless. “I appeal to Caesar,” Paul says, playing his last card. He is still a prisoner. And no prisoner wanted to take the chance of incurring the anger of the Roman Emperor wondering why his time had been wasted. But by appealing to Caesar, Paul purchases his ticket to Rome, where he will have the gift of testifying to “the facts” of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord of all things.

As we saints today have learned, so Paul learned: God answers prayer, however long it takes or however unexpected the answer is. Have faith.