NOTES for Act 27:1-26

The angel’s simple words, “God has granted you all those who sail with you,” once again bring us to the ancient conviction that the world—or, in this case, the ship—is sustained by a few righteous people. Paul, whom God has destined to reach Rome, becomes the guarantee of salvation for several hundred people—his guards, merchants, and sailors. Clearly, the voyage would have gone much more favorably if all the ship’s passengers had understood the special role of the prisoner they were taking to Rome. This voyage becomes a kind of model of the whole world and of individual communities: there are those who sustain the world, resembling the one Righteous Man for whom it was created and by whom it was saved, and there are those to whom the role of these righteous people is not evident. Yet, and here lies a great mystery of God’s providence, they can perish or be saved only together, for they are sailing on the same ship and living in the same country, the same world, the same planet... Today’s reading therefore sets us a twofold task: to hold fast to those who sustain the world, beginning with that one Righteous Man, and, as far as possible, to be ourselves a ray of light in our own realm—at work, in the family, in our country, and so on.