Catholic Commentary
Peter Arrives at Caesarea and Meets Cornelius (Part 1)
24On the next day they entered into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and his near friends.25When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshiped him.26But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up! I myself am also a man.”27As he talked with him, he went in and found many gathered together.28He said to them, “You yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come to one of another nation, but God has shown me that I shouldn’t call any man unholy or unclean.29Therefore I also came without complaint when I was sent for. I ask therefore, why did you send for me?”30Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour, I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing31and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer is heard, and your gifts to the needy are remembered in the sight of God.
Acts 10:24–31 describes Peter's arrival at Cornelius's home in Caesarea, where the Roman centurion worships him before Peter refuses, declaring he is merely a man. Peter then explains that God has shown him not to consider any person unclean, and Cornelius testifies that an angel informed him his prayers and charitable acts are remembered by God.
Peter refuses the worship meant for him and enters a Gentile home—two actions that shatter the barriers between Jew and Gentile, proving that God's grace knows no ethnic boundary.
Commentary
Acts 10:24 — A community already forming. Luke notes with quiet precision that Cornelius had assembled "his relatives and near friends" before Peter even arrived. This is not merely social hospitality; it is the act of a man who took the angel's word seriously enough to act on it immediately and communally. The Greek synkalesamenos (having called together) echoes the ekklēsia-language of assembly throughout Acts. Cornelius effectively pre-figures the household church: before baptism, before instruction, a gathering has formed around the expectation of the Word. The detail that they waited through a full day's journey underscores their eager readiness—a spiritual receptivity that will become the ground in which Peter's proclamation takes root.
Acts 10:25 — Prostration before Peter. Cornelius "fell down at his feet and worshiped him" (prosekynēsen). The same verb is used in Acts and the Gospels for worship offered to God or to Christ (cf. Matthew 2:2; 4:9–10; Revelation 19:10; 22:8–9). As a Roman centurion, Cornelius would have understood prostration as an act of supreme honor, not necessarily strict divine worship in the Jewish sense; but Luke's vocabulary signals that the gesture exceeds normal social deference. Whether Cornelius mistook Peter for a divine messenger or simply rendered the most extravagant reverence he knew, the scene is theologically charged.
Acts 10:26 — Peter's refusal: "I myself am also a man." Peter's response is immediate and categorical. Anastēthi — "Rise!" or "Stand up!" — is the same imperative used of resurrections (Acts 9:40; Mark 5:41). Peter will not accept divine honors. His words, kai egō autos anthrōpos eimi ("I myself am also a man"), are among the most important christological-negative statements in the New Testament: they define, by contrast, what is proper to Christ alone. This refusal becomes a touchstone in Catholic Tradition for the distinction between latria (worship due to God alone) and the honor due to holy men and women. Peter does not diminish the spiritual gravity of the encounter; he redirects its energy toward the true source. The contrast with Herod Agrippa in Acts 12:21–23, who accepts divine honors and is struck dead, is almost certainly deliberate on Luke's part.
Acts 10:27–28 — The explanation of the vision, applied publicly. Peter "went in and found many gathered together" — Luke's construction draws the reader's eye: entering a Gentile home is itself the enacted interpretation of the vision. What God showed Peter on the rooftop in Joppa (Acts 10:9–16) is now translated into bodily movement. Peter names the transgression openly: Jewish law and custom (athemiton, "unlawful," with its nuance of social-religious taboo rather than strictly Mosaic law) forbade association of this intimacy with Gentiles. But Peter immediately pivots: "God has shown me that I should not call any man koinon (common) or akatharton (unclean)." The vocabulary of purity and impurity—so central to Levitical law—is now applied not to foods but to persons. The hermeneutical move is radical: the vision about the sheet of animals (vv. 9–16) was not primarily about dietary law; it was about people. Peter has understood the vision rightly. The "unclean" category cannot be applied to any human being made in the image of God and called by him.
Acts 10:29 — Peter's own obedience under scrutiny. Peter came "without complaint" (anantirrhētōs) — a word suggesting not merely willingness but the active suppression of inner resistance. This candor is characteristic of Luke's Peter: he does not pretend he found the vision easy. He asks why he was sent for — not out of ignorance (he knows from the angel's report) but as a rhetorical invitation for Cornelius to give his own testimony. This is pastorally significant: Peter makes space for the human story within the divine one.
Verses 30–31 — Cornelius's testimony: prayer and almsgiving before God. Cornelius recounts the apparition "four days ago" at the ninth hour — the hour of Jewish afternoon prayer (cf. Acts 3:1), which Cornelius observes as a "God-fearer." The angelic messenger declares two things: his prayer has been "heard" (eisēkousthē) and his gifts to the needy have been "remembered" (emnēsthēsan) before God. The pairing of prayer and almsgiving is deeply Hebraic (cf. Tobit 12:12; Matthew 6:2–6) and anticipates Catholic sacramental theology in which the interior (prayer) and exterior (works of mercy) are inseparable dimensions of authentic religion. God does not forget acts of charity; they rise before him as memorial offerings. The word mnēmosynon (memorial/remembrance) is sacrificial-cultic language — Cornelius's alms function almost as an incense offering ascending to the divine presence.
Catholic Commentary
Catholic Tradition illuminates this passage at several interlocking levels.
On the universality of salvation: The Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium §16 and Nostra Aetate §1, draws directly on the Cornelius narrative to ground its teaching that God's saving will extends to all peoples. The Church explicitly cites Acts 10:34–35 as scriptural warrant that "whoever fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him." But the theological groundwork is laid here in verses 28 and 31: God remembers the prayers and alms of a man outside the covenant before he has received baptism or explicit faith in Christ.
On Peter's refusal of worship (latria): The Fourth Lateran Council and the Council of Trent both systematized the distinction between latria (worship due to God alone), dulia (veneration of saints), and hyperdulia (special veneration of Mary). Peter's refusal in verse 26 is the scriptural paradigm for latria belonging exclusively to God. St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Acts, Hom. XXIII) notes that Peter's words are meant to teach Cornelius — and through him all readers — where true reverence is properly directed. This is not an argument against the veneration of saints; it is an argument for its proper ordering.
On prayer and almsgiving as ascending before God: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§2559) defines prayer as "the raising of one's mind and heart to God." Cornelius exemplifies this even without full knowledge of Christ. St. Augustine (City of God, Book XVIII) considered Cornelius a type of the anima naturaliter Christiana — the soul naturally oriented toward God — whose genuine worship was "completed" rather than rejected by the Gospel. The memorial (mnēmosynon) language of verse 31 is also taken up in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I), where the Church prays that God would "remember" the offerings of his people — a liturgical echo of this very scene.
On Peter as gateway of the Gentile mission: The Catechism §767 situates Pentecost and its aftermath — including the Cornelius episode — as constitutive of the Church's missionary nature. Peter is not acting on personal initiative; he is the instrument of a divine breakthrough. His authority here is precisely apostolic: he interprets, announces, and applies the revelation entrusted to him (cf. Matthew 16:19; CCC §553).
For Today
This passage confronts contemporary Catholics with a specific challenge: the temptation to define the boundaries of God's action more narrowly than God himself does. Peter had Scripture, tradition, and long-formed instinct on his side when he hesitated to enter a Gentile home — and he was still wrong to hesitate. The passage invites an honest examination of conscience: Whom do I regard as beyond the reach of grace? Whose prayers do I assume God does not hear? Cornelius was not a Catholic, not a Jew — and yet his prayer rose before God as a memorial offering.
Peter's refusal of prostration is also quietly urgent in an age prone to personality cults, including religious ones. It models the disposition of every authentic Catholic minister, preacher, or influencer: "I myself am also a man." Spiritual authority, rightly exercised, always deflects ultimate reverence upward.
Finally, Cornelius's pairing of prayer and almsgiving offers a practical corrective to a spirituality that becomes purely interior. His charity to the poor was not a supplement to his prayer — it was remembered alongside his prayer, before God. The Catholic tradition of linking the corporal works of mercy to authentic prayer life (cf. CCC §2447) is not optional devotion; it is, as this passage shows, the very thing that opens the door to divine encounter.
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