NOTES for Act 20:7-9

The disciples' meeting in Troas takes place on the first day of the week, and this gathering is spoken of as something customary. Yet before us is important testimony to how early in the Church the day of the Resurrection became the day for prayer and Eucharistic gatherings. Why does the meeting take place at night? Was it only because of persecution? Apparently to some degree it was, but hardly for that reason alone. After all, the new day began in the evening, and one can imagine how impatiently the Christians, burning with the desire to meet Christ as soon as possible in prayer and in the breaking of the Bread, tried to gather as soon as the Sabbath rest observed by the brothers from among the Jews had ended.

In the upper room where the disciples had gathered, there were many lamps, but one of them was sitting off to the side by the window. Because of that, he apparently became detached from the gathering and fell asleep, and as a result fell out of the window. Not everyone who comes to the Church has the necessary reserve of spiritual strength, and yet the Teacher asked His disciples to watch. And for those who do not feel strong enough, it is better not to tuck themselves away in a secluded corner, but to go toward the light, so as not to fall into something worse than the fall Eutychus took.