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From: Acts 3:1-10
Cure of a Man Lame from Birth
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Commentary:
1. This was the hour of the evening sacrifice, which began around three o’clock
and was attended by a large number of devout Jews. The ritual, which went on
until dusk, was the second sacrifice of the day. The earlier one, on similar lines,
began at dawn and lasted until nine in the morning.
2. None of the documents that have come down to us which describe the Tem-
ple mentions a gate of this name. It was probably the Gate of Nicanor (or Corin-
thian Gate), which linked the court of the Gentiles with the court of the women
which led on to the court of the Israelites. It was architecturally a very fine struc-
ture and because of its location it was a very busy place, which would have
made it a very good place for begging.
3-8. The cure of this cripple was the first miracle worked by the Apostles. “This
cure”, says St. John Chrysostom, “testifies to the resurrection of Christ, of which
it is an image. [...] Observe that they do not go up to the temple with the inten-
tion of performing the miracle, so clear were they of ambition, so closely did
they imitate their Master” (”Hom. on Acts”, 8).
However, the Apostles decide that the time has come to use the supernatural
power given them by God. What Christ did in the Gospel using His own divine po-
wer, the Apostles now do in His name, using His power. “The blind receive their
sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised
up” (Luke 7:22). Our Lord now keeps His promise to empower His disciples to
work miracles—visible signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. These miracles
are not extraordinary actions done casually or suddenly, without His disciples’ in-
volvement: they occur because our Lord is moved to perform them by the Apos-
tles’ faith (faith is an essential pre-condition). The disciples are conscious of ha-
ving received a gift and they act on foot of it.
These miracles in the New Testament obviously occur in situations where grace
is intensely concentrated. However, that is not to say that miracles do not con-
tinue to occur in the Christian economy of salvation—miracles of different kinds,
performed because God is attracted to men and women of faith. “The same is
true of us. If we struggle daily to become saints, each of us in his own situation
in the world and through his own job or profession, in our ordinary lives, then I
assure you that God will make us into instruments that can work miracles and,
if necessary, miracles of the most extraordinary kind. We will give sight to the
blind. Who could not relate thousands of cases of people, blind almost from
the day they were born, recovering their sight and receiving all the splendor of
Christ’s light? And others who were deaf, or dumb, who could not hear or pro-
nounce words fitting to God’s children.... Their senses have been purified and
now they hear and speak as men, not animals. “In nomine Iesu!” In the name
of Jesus His Apostles enable the cripple to move and walk, when previously he
had been incapable of doing anything useful; and that other lazy character, who
knew his duties but didn’t fulfill them. [...] In the Lord’s name, “surge et ambula!”,
rise up and walk.
“Another man was dead, rotting, smelling like a corpse: he hears God’s voice, as
in the miracle of the son of the widow at Naim: ‘Young man, I say to you, rise up’.
We will work miracles like Christ did, like the first Apostles did” (St. J. Escriva,
“Friends of God”, 262).
Miracles call for cooperation—faith—on the part of those who wish to be cured. The
lame man does his bit, even if it is only the simple gesture of obeying Peter and
looking at the Apostles.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
Thank you. God bless you.