Acts 5:17-26 / John 3:16-21
To break out from a jail is not that impossible. We have read stories of spectacular escapes from high security prisons and even from the infamous Alcatraz.
But whether the escapes were spectacular or otherwise, the method of escape is usually revealed and there is nothing so mysterious or miraculous about it.
Yet the escape from the jail that we heard in the 1st reading is indeed mysterious and miraculous, just as much as the appearance of an angel is beyond logical explanation.
Even the prison officials bore testimony to the fact that the jail was securely locked and that the guards were on duty at the gates and hence any escape was next to impossible.
We would have thought that this would stop the high priest and the Sanhedrin and make them ask themselves what was happening and that they could be dealing with a supernatural power.
But it seemed that they just brushed that aside and continued with the persecution of the apostles.
It seemed that their minds are darkened with jealousy. And as the gospel puts it - though the light has come into the world, men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deed were evil.
And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear that his actions should be exposed.
So when we do wrong we are entering into a prison of darkness and we live in fear.
Yet, we also can escape from that self-made prison. We only need to turn to God and beg for mercy.
For God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world. When we turn to Jesus who is the Divine Mercy, we will escape from our sins and live in the light.