Prison break

In today's first reading (Acts 5:17-26), an angel of the Lord frees the disciples from prison so that they may continue to preach the Gospel.

Go and take your place in the temple area,
and tell the people everything about this life.

But there are worse prisons than cages of stone and steel: the prison of spiritual emptiness and the insidious trap of a sinful life.

Indeed, as today's Gospel (John 3:16-21) reminds us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ frees us from these prisons of the soul, liberating us from the dungeons of despair, doubt, and spiritual squalor to which sin and faithlessness condemn us.

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe
has already been condemned,
because he has not believed
in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things
hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen
as done in God.