Acts 10:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Let those among us who do not care for their households hear this. He cared even for his soldiers and “gave much alms to the people.” Thus both his understanding and his life were well ordered.

Have you seen the power of almsgiving, both from the previous discourse and from the present one? There it delivered from temporal death. Here it delivered from eternal death and opened the gates of heaven.

See how much was done so that Cornelius might believe. An angel was sent, the Spirit acted, the chief of the apostles was called, such a vision was shown, and in general nothing was left undone.

How many centurions, commanders, and kings there were, and none of them was counted worthy of what he received.

“There was a certain man in Caesarea, named Cornelius.” This Cornelius was neither a Jew nor one under the law, and yet he already lived the same manner of life as we do.

Already two men clothed with honors believe in Christ: the treasurer of the Ethiopian woman, and this man.

“Devout and fearing God with all his household.” Let us listen to this. We do not care for our own households, but he cared even for his soldiers.

“A centurion of the cohort called the Italian.” He was, it says, from the great cohort called the Italian. A cohort is what we now call a company (νεμερον).

The writer makes this man known and gives detailed information about him so that no one may say that errors against history occur in Holy Scripture.

One should know that a cohort consisted of two hundred soldiers, and a guard unit of sixty.

It is usually said, therefore, that he merited faith because he was a good man even before he believed.

This can be said of Cornelius, whose alms were accepted and whose prayers were heard before he believed in Christ. Still, he gave alms and prayed with some kind of faith.

For how did he call upon Him in whom he did not believe? But if he could have been saved without faith in Christ, the architect Apostle Peter would not have been sent for his edification.

In any case, “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Ps 126:1).

We are told that faith is from us, while the rest, which concerns works of righteousness, is from the Lord. As if faith did not belong to the building. As if the foundation did not belong to the building.

Faith is not attained through virtues; rather, virtues are attained through faith, as blessed Pope Gregory explains.

For Cornelius, he says, whose alms even before baptism are found worthy of praise, with an angel as witness, did not come from works to faith, but from faith to works.

If he did not believe in the true God before his baptism, to whom did he pray? Or how would almighty God have heard him, if he had not asked Him to be perfected in good?

Therefore he knew God, the Creator of all, but remained ignorant concerning the Incarnation of His almighty Son.

Cornelius was “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household.” He did not keep only himself in the fear of God, but taught all who lived in his house to fear God.

This is good and acceptable before God (1 Tim 2:3), that each should care not only for what is useful to himself, but also for what is useful to all who live with him.

In this way that centurion, before he had been taught by the apostles, was already fulfilling the apostolic commandment: “Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's” (1 Cor 10:24).

He also gave many alms and prayed to God day and night. Thus, before he believed, he was visibly fulfilling the commandment of our Lord and God, which says, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Mt 26:41).

At this time, when the Church of Christ enjoyed peace and the apostles were peacefully visiting Christian communities in various cities of Palestine, the Spirit of God called the Apostle Peter, who was staying in Joppa.

He called him to begin the greatest work in the spread of the Church of Christ: the conversion of the Gentiles to faith in Christ.

The first city in which the conversion of Gentiles to Christ took place was Caesarea of Palestine.

This city was then the residence of the Roman procurator, the governor of Palestine. Therefore it contained a garrison of native Romans or Italians.

In a conquered country hostile to its conquerors, they represented a more reliable army than soldiers recruited into Roman service from the local inhabitants.

Chapter 10 narrates the conversion to Christ of the centurion Cornelius.

It says of him that even before his conversion he “feared God with all his household,” “gave much alms,” and “always prayed to God” (v. 2).

It also says that “God cleansed” him (v. 15; compare v. 28), and that, as one who acts righteously, he was “acceptable” to God (v. 35).

And yet, in order to be saved, Cornelius had to hear the words, or preaching, of the Apostle Peter (v. 6).

Here is instruction for those who, relying self-confidently on the works of their supposed piety and on their righteous life, neglect illumination by the light of true teaching and their enrollment in the chosen flock, the Church of God.

If Cornelius was acceptable to God, and if he was cleansed, this means only that God forechose and prepared him to enter the Church and receive the Gospel, since without this salvation is impossible.

A Gentile by birth, he possessed a deeply religious spirit. Finding no satisfaction for his religious need in dying paganism, he, like many of his contemporaries, accepted Judaism. Carefully fulfilling the laws of Moses, he was a man "devout and fearing God with all his household, who gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always." Yet Judaism did not satisfy his spirit, which thirsted for truth. In his prayers he was evidently asking the Lord to open to him the sources of true and perfect knowledge and worship of God. His prayer was heard.

The writer of Acts depicts the religious and moral character of the Gentile Cornelius in this way: he was devout and feared God.

The latter expression indicates Cornelius's veneration of the true God, Jehovah. Therefore his piety was not merely the piety of a devout Gentile in general, but piety marked by truth.

He was evidently one of those Gentiles who recognized the falsehood of pagan religion and did not find in it rest for their spirit or satisfaction for their spiritual needs.

Coming into contact with the Jews and their worship of God, he sensed its truth in his heart. Or at least he found in it greater satisfaction for his religious needs.

The beginning of the conversion of the Gentiles opens with the conversion of Cornelius the centurion. In him, paganism had its best representative.

The writer characterizes him with the finest traits, both religiously and morally, so that a question arises: how could such a luminous person exist among the Gentiles?

Evidently Cornelius had lived for a long time among Jews in Caesarea, and also in Jerusalem, where he often went as centurion of the most reliable company, two hundred native Italians guarding the procurator.

Thus he became sufficiently acquainted with the faith and hopes of the Hebrews. Having abandoned the ravings of paganism, he held to all that was best in Judaism: piety and the fear of God.