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From: Acts 5:12-16

The Growth of the Church

[12] Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands
of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. [13] None of
the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor. [14] And more
than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,
[15] so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds
and pallets, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of
them. [16] The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing
the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

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Commentary:

12-16. In this third summary (cf. 2:42-47 and 4:32-37) of the lifestyle of the first
community, St Luke refers particularly to the Apostles’ power to work miracles.
These miracles confirm to the people that the Kingdom of God has in fact come
among them. Grace abounds and it shows its presence by spiritual conversions
and physical cures. These “signs and wonders” are not done to amaze people
or provoke curiosity but to awaken faith.

Miracles always accompany God’s Revelation to men; they are part of that Reve-
lation. They are not simply a bending of the laws of nature: they are a kind of ad-
vance sign of the glorious transformation which the world will undergo at the end
of time. Thus, just as a sinner, when he repents, obeys God without ceasing to
be free, so matter can be changed if its Creator so ordains, undermining or de-
stroying its own laws.

Miracles are a form of accreditation God gives to the Gospel message: they are
actions of God in support of the truth of his messengers’ preaching. “If they had
not worked miracles and wonders,” Origen says, “Jesus’ disciples could not
have moved their hearers to give up their traditional religion for new teachings
and truths, and to embrace, at the risk of their lives, the teachings which were
being proclaimed to them” (”Against Celsus”, I, 46). And St Ephraern comments:
“The Apostles’ miracles made the resurrection and ascension of the Lord credi-
ble” (”Armenian Commentary, ad loc”.).

Through miracles God speaks to the minds and hearts of those who witness
them, inviting them to believe but not forcing their freedom or lessening the merit
of their faith. The Apostles follow in the footsteps of our Lord, who “supported and
confirmed his preaching by miracles to arouse the faith of his hearers and give
them assurance, not to coerce them” (Vatican II, “Dignitatis Humanae”, 11). If
people have the right dispositions they will generally have no difficulty in recogni-
zing and accepting miracles. Common sense and religious instinct tell them that
miracles are possible, because all things are subject to God; however, prejudice
and resistance to conversion and its implications can blind a person and make
him deny something which is quite obvious to a man of good will.

“Since the Apostles were all together, the people brought them their sick on
beds and pallets. From every quarter fresh tribute of wonder accrued to them —
from them that believed, from them that were healed, such was the Apostles’ bold-
ness of speech and the virtuous behavior of the believers. Although the Apostles
modestly ascribe these things to Christ, in whose name they acted, their own life
and noble conduct also helped to produce this effect” (”Hom. on Acts”, 12).

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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.

He is Risen! Truly Risen!

A blessed Eastertide to all!