NOTES for Act 10:44-48
Today we finally read how the story of Peter and the centurion Cornelius ended. That is, in fact, it has not yet ended. And it will not end as long as the Spirit breathes in the Church. For it is largely thanks to the conversion of Cornelius and his whole household described in these chapters that most of us received “access” to salvation. Although the Lord Himself opened this path, His disciples, willingly or unwillingly, restricted that access. They took the order they had observed until then to be the only correct one. It never occurred to them that pagans might be of any interest to God. Yet they are. And God expands the boundaries and turns everything upside down. He sends His Spirit upon the converted pagans, effectively making them Christians before the brethren recognize them as such. Today the Lord Himself widened the entrance into the Church for us. May we not narrow it again...