16 May 2023 - Tuesday of the 6th week of Easter - Acts 16:22-34

     Paul and his companions did not have an easy time preaching Christ’s Good News throughout the ancient world.  We hear of their struggles in the stories from the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and his companion Silas cured a young girl who was possessed by an unclean spirit, but since she used that spirit to tell the future and to earn money for her masters, her masters pressed charges against Paul and Silas when their money-making scheme was threatened, accusing them of disturbing the peace and breaking Roman law.  

      Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten with rods, and thrown into prison. Rather than being angry with their situation, they lifted it up to the Lord, singing hymns and praying, which attracted the attention of the other prisoners. It tickled me when I heard how Paul, Silas, and the other prisoners remained in the prison after a great earthquake, rather than using this as an opportunity to escape. I thought about the prisoners whom I minister to in the federal and state prisons here in Mississippi; most of them would burst out of prison with great joy as fast as they could when faced with a situation like this, seeing this means of escape as a gift from God. However, both the prisoners and the guards are touched by the word of God that Paul and Silas preached, and they came to believe.  What a great story for us to hear today from the Acts of the Apostles.  

        I want to mention a saint whose feast day was celebrated yesterday, St Dymphna, a saint who has become well-known in recent years. Tradition passes down that in the 7th century, Dymphna was the daughter of a pagan king in Ireland and his wife, a Christian princess, who passed her Christian faith down to her daughter.  Dymphna’s mom passed away while Dymphna was still a young girl.  Dymphna's father inappropriate proposal to have her marry her own father and become the new queen caused her to flee to Belgium.  Dymphna’s father traveled to Belgium, killing her in a fit of rage.  Dymphna’s death was mourned by the local people in the village in Belgium where she lived, where she was remembered for her kindness to the poor and the sick.  That village became a refuge for the treatment of the mentally ill in the medieval period when Dymphna’s remains were rediscovered in the 13th century and her story was remembered.  As St Dymphna is the patron saint of those with mental illness, we pray for those who struggle with mental illness in our modern world and we pray that they get the medical help they need.