But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go show these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.
All Commentaries on Acts 12:17 Go To Acts 12
John Chrysostom
AD 407
That they may rejoice: that they may not be anxious. Through these those learn, not those through him: such thought had he for the humbler part!—
Truly, nothing better than affliction not above measure (συμμέτρου). What think you must have been their state of mind— how full of delight! Where now are those women, who sleep the whole night through? Where are those men, who do not even turn themselves in their bed? Do you see the watchful soul? With women, and children, and maid-servants, they sang hymns to God, made purer than the sky by affliction. But now, if we see a little danger, we fall back. Nothing ever was more splendid than that Church. Let us imitate these, let us emulate them. Not for this was the night made, that we should sleep all through it and be idle. To this bear witness the artisans, the carriers, and the merchants (to this), the Church of God rising up in the midst of the night. Rise thou up also, and behold the quire of the stars, the deep silence, the profound repose: contemplate with awe the order (οἰκονομίαν) of your Master's household. Then is your soul purer: it is lighter, and subtler, and soaring disengaged: the darkness itself, the profound silence, are sufficient to lead you to compunction. And if also thou look to the heavens studded with its stars, as with ten thousand eyes, if you bethink you that all those multitudes who in the daytime are shouting, laughing, frisking, leaping, wronging, grasping, threatening, inflicting wrongs without number, lie all one as dead, you will condemn all the self-willedness of man. Sleep has invaded and defeated (ἡ λεγξεν) nature: it is the image of death, the image of the end of all things. If thou (look out of window and) lean over into the street, you will not hear even a sound: if you look into the house, you will see all lying as it were in a tomb. All this is enough to arouse the soul, and lead it to reflect on the end of all things.
Here indeed my discourse is for both men and women. Bend your knees, send forth groans, beseech your Master to be merciful: He is more moved by prayers in the night, when you make the time for rest a time for mourning. Remember what words that king uttered: I have been weary with my groaning: every night will I wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. Psalm 6:6 However delicate a liver you may be, you are not more delicate than he: however rich you may be, you are not richer than David. And again the same Psalmist says, At midnight I rose to give thanks unto You for the judgments of Your righteousness. Psalm 119:62 No vainglory then intrudes upon you: how can it, when all are sleeping, and not looking at you? Then neither sloth nor drowsiness invades you: how can they, when your soul is aroused by such great things? After such vigils come sweet slumbers and wondrous revelations. Do this, thou also the man, not the woman only. Let the house be a Church, consisting of men and women. For think not because you are the only man, or because she is the only woman there, that this is any hindrance. For where two, He says, are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20 Where Christ is in the midst, there is a great multitude. Where Christ is, there needs must Angels be, needs must Archangels also and the other Powers be there. Then you are not alone, seeing you have Him Who is Lord of all. Hear again the prophet also saying, Better is one that does the will of the Lord, than ten thousand transgressors. comp. Sirach 16:3 Nothing more weak than a multitude of unrighteous men, nothing more strong than one man who lives according to the law of God. If you have children wake up them also, and let your house altogether become a Church through the night: but if they be tender, and cannot endure the watching, let them stay for the first or second prayer, and then send them to rest: only stir up yourself, establish yourself in the habit. Nothing is better than that storehouse which receives such prayers as these. Hear the Prophet speaking: If I remembered You upon my bed, I thought upon You in the dawn of the morning. Psalm 63:7 But you will say: I have labored much during the day, and I cannot. Mere pretext this and subterfuge. For however much you have labored, you will not toil like the smith, who lets fall such a heavy hammer from a great height upon the (metal flying off in) sparks, and takes in the smoke with his whole body: and yet at this work he spends the greater part of the night. You know also how the women, if there is need for us to go into the country, or to go forth unto a vigil, watch through the whole night. Then have thou also a spiritual forge, to fashion there not pots or cauldrons, but your own soul, which is far better than either coppersmith or goldsmith can fashion. Your soul, waxen old in sins, cast thou into the smelting-furnace of confession: let fall the hammer from on high: that is, the condemnation of your words (τὥν ῥημάτων τὴν κατάγνωσιν): light up the fire of the Spirit. You have a far mightier craft (than theirs). You are beating into shape not vessels of gold, but the soul, which is more precious than all gold, even as the smith hammers out his vessel. For it is no material vessel that you are working at, but you are freeing your soul from all imaginations belonging to this life. Let a lamp be by your side, not that one which we burn, but that which the prophet had, when he said, Your law is a lamp unto my feet. Psalm 119:105 Bring your soul to a red heat, by prayer: when you see it hot enough, draw it out, and mould it into what shape you will. Believe me, not fire so effectual to burn off rust, as night prayer to remove the rust of our sins. Let the night-watchers, if no one else, shame us. They, by man's law, go their rounds in the cold, shouting loudly, and walking through lanes (στενωπὥν) and alleys, oftentimes drenched with rain and (all) congealed with cold, for you and for your safety, and the protection of your property. There is he taking such care for your property, while you take none even for your soul. And yet I do not make you go your rounds in the open air like him, nor shout loudly and rend your sides: but in your closet itself, or in your bedchamber, bend your knees, and entreat your Lord. Why did Christ Himself pass a whole night on the mountain? Was it not, that He might be an ensample to us? Then is it that the plants respire, in the night, I mean: and then also does the soul take in the dew even more than they. What the sun has parched by day becomes cool again at night. More refreshing than all dew, the tears of the night descend upon our lusts and upon all heat and fever of the soul, and do not let it be affected in any such way. But if it do not enjoy the benefit of that dew, it will be burnt up in the daytime. But God forbid (it should be so )! Rather, may we all, being refreshed, and enjoying the mercy of God, be freed from the burden of our sins, through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honor, now and ever, world without end. Amen.
