8. The Interesting Case of the Centurion Cornelius

Acts of the Apostles

Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, narrated the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Perhaps Luke did not consider it a conversion but rather a maturing; he has grown to fullness, but he has changed; he has changed his attitude. It is chapter 9 of Acts, which we read in the previous meeting, the dramatic event that disrupts Saul’s life; it changed his outlook. Immediately afterwards, Luke relates Peter’s change. We know that in the Acts of the Apostles the two main characters, Peter and Paul, are deliberately kept in parallel, and what is told about one, is also proposed for the other.

The intention of the author of the book is to support Saul, that is, St. Paul, to present him as consistent with the preaching of Peter, Jesus’ eyewitness, first among the apostles, foundation stone of the Christian community. Saul believed that Jesus was wrong. When he meets the Risen One he changes his perspective, realizes that Jesus is right and starts to follow him. In what sense should Peter change?

Chapter 10 of the Acts of the Apostles narrates a pastoral visit that changed the pastoral, that is, that opened Peter’s mentality by making him understand that Jesus’ project was to broaden the horizons, to leave the restricted environment of Jerusalem and to bring the preaching of the Gospel to all peoples. Until then the apostles had remained in Jerusalem, without participating in a missionary ministry of proclamation to others, however, now begins a departure from the city that could be compared to a pastoral visit.

In chapter 9, in fact, in verse 32, it says “As Peter was passing through every region, he went down to the holy ones living in Lydda.” Lydda was a city on the Mediterranean coast, so it is only a few dozen kilometers from Jerusalem. Peter is going to visit the various Christian groups that have been forming in the villages around Jerusalem, but we remain in the sphere of Judea. In Lydda Peter he cures a cripple named Aeneas. And at that time they send for him to go to Joppa, another town on the coast, because a woman involved in Christian life died and Peter responded to the call, visits that community in the moment of mourning for the loss of this woman named Tabitha and resurrects her.

He makes an extraordinary gesture, a miracle of resurrection of the body. Not only does he make the paralytic walk, but he gives life to a dead person. It is a great task similar to that performed by Jesus and is the sign of his apostolic authority. After these prodigious events, Peter remained in Joppa for several days, in the house of a certain Simon the tanner.

At this point the story of chapter 10 begins. It begins as a separate narrative: “Now in Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Cohort called the Italica, devout and God-fearing along with his whole household, who used to give alms generously to the Jewish people and pray to God constantly.” A Roman officer in command of the Italian cohort, so most likely an Italian, living in Caesarea. He is a good man, religious, interested in the religiosity of Israel; a man who prays and gives alms, but he is a foreigner, he is a Roman, is an enemy, a soldier of the occupation army. In these situations, a person of that kind is automatically considered bad, he is one of the enemies, an occupying foreigner, a pagan. Instead, Luke describes him as an honest, serious, good, religious man.

Through this man’s experience, Peter’s change occurs. Cornelius, one day, “one afternoon about three o’clock, he saw plainly in a vision an angel of God come in to him and say to him, ‘Cornelius.’ He looked intently at him and, seized with fear, said, ‘What is it, sir?’ He said to him, ‘Your prayers and almsgiving have ascended as a memorial offering before God. Now send some men to Joppa and summon one Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with another Simon, a tanner, who has a house by the sea.’” It is a strange communication. An angel of God suggests to Cornelius to send for a man and gives him the address.

Why does Cornelius have to send for this Simon named Peter? The angel did not tell him. Cornelius’ prayers and almsgiving have risen before God and God therefore invites him to seek this man. We could imagine that behind this story of the angel that the communication could also have been human information; someone may have suggested to Cornelius to talk to Peter and as a man of government and power the centurion Cornelius organizes a mission assigning some soldiers to go to Joppa to find this Peter and make him go to Caesarea.

Caesarea is a pagan city; it is a city built by the Romans dedicated to the Emperor Caesar, is a city where the Romans live, the occupants, is a city of soldiers. This Roman officer who sends for Peter can disturb the serenity of the apostle who cannot imagine why Cornelius wants to meet him, but neither does Cornelius know why he has to send for Peter.

The story moves to Joppa and the next day while those were on their way and approached Joppa, Peter, in the house of Simon the tanner, is waiting for his lunch hour, goes up to the terrace and falls asleep and at that moment he has a vision, a strange dream at lunchtime. He sees a tablecloth coming down from the sky held by the four ends; on the tablecloth there are different types of animals. In the dream Peter sees unclean animals, that is, animals that according to the Levitical tradition of the Old Testament should not be eaten because they are considered impure. We can imagine a pig or a shrimp… they are considered unclean, inedible animals.

At lunchtime Peter is hungry, he dreams of a tablecloth with unclean animals and a voice from heaven says to him: “Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.” But Peter said, ‘Certainly not, sir. For never have I eaten anything profane and unclean.’ The voice spoke to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.’” This is repeated three times. A dream that is repeated three times has a particular meaning. Three times Peter renounces to eat food that he considers impure and three times the voice from heaven tells him: ‘See that I have purified them, do not consider them impure.’ He wakes up suddenly because he hears that someone is knocking on the door.

Peter is on the terrace of the house and downstairs someone is knocking on the door and hears Roman voices asking for a certain Simon, named Peter. The centurion Cornelius needs him in Caesarea. Probably, the one who received Peter in his house tried to protect him and Peter from the terrace recognized that some soldiers are looking for him. Why are they looking for him? Because the centurion Cornelius in Caesarea wants to talk to him. Instinctively no one thinks of an opening for evangelization, but thinks of a political problem, a judicial matter. It is natural for Peter to be afraid, but the narrator says that the Spirit tells him to go.

Within himself, Peter hears that divine voice telling him ‘go ahead… follow them.’ And he decides to leave and runs all along the coast from Joppa to Caesarea. He is escorted by these soldiers. It takes a day’s walk. When they arrive, Peter has had the opportunity to rethink all the facts; he should have put together with that strange dream of the tablecloth with the call of these soldiers; he must have asked himself several times What does Cornelius want from me? Why does a Roman centurion send for me? What have I done? What does he want to talk about? Probably about some accusation… he healed a paralytic… resurrected a dead woman… created a chaos in the city and now the Roman force is interfering in his life… ‘If the Centurion called to talk, it must be something serious… why does he want to talk to me? And yet he feels it is a good opportunity.

When he arrives he finds all of Cornelius’ family together. The family includes the group of employees, it is not only the wife, the children, but also the servants, those who depend on the centurion. There are also soldiers with other relatives, men, women, children… who await the arrival of this character. Cornelius must have passed the word that he was invited to look for this man; they do not know what to expect from him; and Peter doesn’t know why he was called.

It’s a paradoxical scene. When Peter is about to enter Cornelius comes out to meet him and throws himself at his feet, almost adoring him, as if he were an extraordinary character, a heavenly element. Peter realizes this. He lifts him up and tells him not to do that ‘I am also a man like you’ and they talk together, we would say that almost holding hands, they enter the house and Peter sees all these people gathered who are waiting for him. As he enters this pagan’s house he realizes that he has done something contrary to the law.

He is Jewish and has been observant of Jewish standards and is now entering the house of the Roman soldiers… he shouldn’t have done it, but he did and he says it and he also says that this entry that is, this opening was suggested to him from above. Peter has rethought along the way about that dream of the tablecloth with the invitation to eat all kinds of food without making a distinction between pure and impure. The voice from above had told him that “what God has purified, do not consider impure.”

Now Peter realizes that the meaning of that dream concerns these people; they are foreigners, not Jews, interested in knowing Jesus and Peter does not even know why he was summoned. He obeyed that call also driven by the Spirit, but he does not know why he was called and Cornelius sincerely says ‘I don’t know why I made you come either, but they told me to make you come because you have something to tell me.’

Then Peter realizes that it is the message of Jesus that he must communicate; it is the proclamation of the gospel; he would not have done it on his own initiative, he would not have gone to proclaim the gospel to Roman soldiers in the city of Caesarea, but was dragged away by force, was called by these interested people, was pushed by God himself. And Peter now faces a situation that was not foreseen. They are foreigners that he considered impure, and are, in fact, willing to believe in Jesus Christ, are open to the proclamation of the gospel.

And then Peter gives a missionary speech. It is one of several speeches that the Evangelist Luke puts into the mouth of the Apostle as a kerygmatic synthesis, that is, the concrete announcement of the gospel of Jesus in a reduced and essential way. It begins by saying “I see that God shows no partiality.” This means that, until that moment, Peter, as a good Jew, was convinced that God made a distinction between people and considered the Jews in a different way as he considered other peoples. He is beginning to understand that those barriers have fallen. And also, he had met Christ, seen him act, heard him speak, but he had not yet really understood this universal openness.

The meeting with Cornelius was really a strange case. An extraordinary event that determined a change. Peter had gone on a pastoral visit and was simply planning to visit the Jews who had become Christians in the city of Lydda. Then he went to Joppa, but he didn’t think about going anywhere else. Instead, that pastoral visit took him to an environment where he did not plan to go and changed the framework of his pastoral care and initiated a new style of evangelical preaching with openness to all peoples.

These are the first steps and Luke recounts with attention these significant moments that mark a change of perspective. Peter announces the Lord Jesus, dead and risen, and Cornelius and his family are willing to believe. And not only that, “While Peter was still speaking these things, the holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.”

The proclamation of the gospel is already a communication of the Spirit and Peter realizes this gift from above and at that moment he understands that it is his duty to baptize them. A little Pentecost has happened; Cornelius’ Spirit-filled family begins to speak in tongues and glorify God as the apostles had done in the beginning and therefore Peter reasons: “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have? He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for a few days.”

This visit meant a change in the scenario of ecclesiastical life; it was a first great sign of openness to all peoples.