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 mira-
cles are not extraordinary actions done casually or suddenly, without His disci-
ples’ involvement: they occur because our Lord is moved to perform them by the
Apostles’ faith (faith is an essential pre-condition). The disciples are conscious
of having 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 pronounce 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.
From: Galatians 1:11-20
God’s Call
[13] For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church
of God violently and tried to destroy it; [14] and I advanced in Judaism beyond ma-
ny of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions
of my fathers. [15] But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had
called me through his grace, [16] was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order
that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood,
[17] nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I
went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus.
[18] Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained
with him fifteen days. [19] But I saw none of the other apostles except James the
Lord’s brother. [20] (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
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Commentary:
11-12. “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10), Paul asked at the moment of his
conversion. Jesus replied, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be
told all that is appointed for you to do” (ibid.). The former persecutor, now under
the influence of grace, will receive instruction and Baptism through the ordinary
course of divine Providence—from a man, Ananias. Thereby Jesus led him to hu-
mility, obedience and abandonment. The Gospel which St Paul preached was i-
dentical with that preached by the other Apostles, and already had the character
of “tradition” in the nascent Church (cf. 1 Cor 15:3; Gal 2:2). This is compatible
with Paul’s claim—made in this passage—that his Gospel does not come from
any man but through a revelation from Jesus Christ. Firstly, because on seeing
the risen Christ he was given supernatural light to understand that Jesus was not
only the Messiah but also the Son of God; and also because this first revelation
was followed by many others to which he refers in his epistles (cf. 1 Cor 11:23;
13:3-8 and especially 2 Cor 12:1-4).
St Paul’s was a unique case, because normally a person came to know the Gos-
pel of Christ by receiving it or learning it from those who had seen Christ during
his life on earth and listened to his teachings. This was what happened in St
Luke’s case, for example (cf. Lk 1:2). St Paul still felt the need to go to Jeru-
salem to hear the Apostles’ preaching (cf. below 1:16-18), especially that of St
Peter.
13-14. The Acts of the Apostles tell us about Paul’s religious zeal; a Pharisee,
he had studied under Gamaliel (cf. Acts 22:3; Phil 3:5) and had consented to
and been present at the martyrdom of Stephen (cf. Acts 7:58; 8:1). Saul had
stood out as a persecutor of Christians, so keen was he to seek them out and
imprison them, even going beyond Judea to do so (cf. Acts 9:1-2). Clearly he
had been a man convinced of his Jewish faith, a zealous keeper of the Law,
and proud to be a Jew (cf. Rom 11:1 ; 2 Cor 11:22). Such was the fear the early
Christians had of him that they could not bring themselves to believe in his con-
version (cf. Acts 9:26). However, this same fervor and passion, to use St Augus-
tine’s comparison (cf. “Contra Faustum”, XXII, 70) was like a dense jungle — a
serious obstacle and yet an indication of immensely fertile soil. Our Lord sowed
the seed of the Gospel in that soil and it produced a very rich crop.
Everyone, no matter how irregular his life may have been, can produce good re-
sults like this—with the help of grace, which does not displace nature but heals
and purifies it, and then raises and perfects it: Courage! You...can! Don’t you see
what God’s grace did with sleepy-headed Peter, the coward who had denied him
..., and with Paul, his fierce and relentless persecutor?” (St. J. Escriva, “The
Way”, 483).
15-16. More than once in Scripture we read about God choosing certain people
for special missions even when they were still in their mother’s womb (cf. Jer 1:5;
Is 49:1-5; Lk 1:15; etc.). This emphasizes the fact that God makes a gratuitous
choice: there is no question of the person’s previous merits contributing to God’s
decision. Vocation is a supernatural divine gift, which God has planned from all
eternity. When God made his will known on the road to Damascus (cf. Acts 9:
3-6), St Paul “did not confer with flesh and blood”, that is, did not seek advice
from anyone, because he was absolutely sure that God himself had called him.
Nor did he consent to the prudence of the flesh, seeking to “play safe”: his self-
surrender was immediate, total and unconditional. When the Apostles heard Je-
sus inviting them to follow him, they “immediately left their nets” (Mt 4:20, 22;
Mk 1:18) and followed the Master, leaving everything behind (cf. Lk 5:11). We
see the same thing happening in Saul’s case: he responds immediately. If he
makes his way to Ananias, he does so on the explicit instructions of Jesus—in
order to receive instruction and Baptism and to discover what his mission is to
be (Acts 9:15-16).
God’s call, therefore, should receive an immediate response. “Consider the faith
and obedience of the Apostles”, St John Chrysostom says. “They are in the
midst of their work (and you know how attractive fishing is!). When they hear his
command, they do not vacillate or lose any time: they do not say, ‘Let’s go home
and say goodbye to our parents.’ No, they leave everything and follow him [...].
That is the kind of obedience Christ asks of us — not to delay even a minute, no
matter how important the things that might keep us” (”Hom. on St Matthew”, 14,
2). And St Cyril of Alexandria comments: “For Jesus also said, ‘No one who puts
his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God’, and he
looked back who asked permission to return home and speak to his parents. But
we see that the holy Apostles did not act in that way; rather they followed Jesus,
immediately leaving the boat and their parents behind. Paul also acted immedia-
tely. He ‘did not confer with flesh and blood’. That is how those who want to fol-
low Christ must act” (”Commentarium in Lucam”, 9).
A person has a duty to follow Christ even if his relatives are opposed to his doing
so or want him to delay making a final decision, perhaps because they feel that
would be the more (humanly) prudent course: “A person should honor his parents,
but God he should obey. We should love the one who has begotten us, but the
first place should be given to him who created us”, St Augustine says, not min-
cing words (”Sermon 100”).
Even if we are unsure as to whether we are strong enough to persevere, this
should not delay us or concern us: it should simply lead us to pray confidently
for God’s help, because, as Vatican II teaches, when God calls a person, he
“must reply without taking counsel with flesh and blood and must give himself
fully to the work of the Gospel. However, such an answer can only be given with
the encouragement and help of the Holy Spirit [...]. Therefore, he must be pre-
pared to remain faithful to his vocation for life, to renounce himself and everything
that up to this he possessed as his own, and to make himself ‘all things to all
men’ (1 Cor 9:22)” (”Ad Gentes”, 24).
17-20. After a period of time devoted to penance and prayer, St Paul made his
way to Jerusalem (cf. Acts 9:26-30) to see Cephas, that is, Peter. His stay of
two weeks is an important indication of Paul’s recognition of and veneration for
Peter, chosen as he had been as the foundation stone of the Church.
In subsequent generations, right down the centuries, Christians have shown their
love for Peter and his successors, traveling to Rome often at great personal effort
and sometimes, even, risk. “Catholic, apostolic, “Roman”! I want you to be very
Roman. And to be anxious to make your ‘path to Rome’, “videre Petrum” — to see
Peter (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 520). Solidarity with and veneration for the Pope
is, then, a clear, practical sign of good Christian spirit.
“James the Lord’s brother” (cf. notes on Mt 12:46-47 and 13:55) is, most com-
mentators think, James the Less (cf. Mk 15:40), also called the son of Alphaeus
(cf. Lk 6:15) and author of the letter which bears his name (cf. Jas 1:1).
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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.