Wednesday in the Octave of Easter

Lectionary: 263

Edvard Munch's Inspiration? 

Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.

From Easter Sunday until Pentecost our first readings are taken from the Acts of the Apostles. This is the perfect text to remember and maintain our enthusiasm for the Good News of Jesus’ Resurrection. If we have read the gospels, especially the Gospel of Saint Luke, and wondered, “What does this mean for me?” Acts of the Apostles will explain it.

The first chapter serves as a bridge from Easter until Pentecost. The disciples, encouraged by the Risen Lord, leave their hiding place to follow Jesus to the Mount of Ascension. Then they return to the Upper Room to pray and wait upon the visitation of the Holy Spirit.

The second chapter describes the Descent of the Holy Spirit and the excitement of that first day. Pilgrims from many nations rush to baptism upon hearing Peter’s first sermon.

Saint Luke tells us today about the disciples’ first healing. A man who cannot walk dances for joy in the presence of God. The disciples – we can call them “The Church” – take up where Jesus left off. There is no break in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In fact God’s Mighty Works will spread farther and faster because many people will do what one man was doing.

Saint Peter is the right man to affect this first miracle. We have seen how brash he is in the gospels. He is the man who rebuked Jesus for speaking of his coming passion; who declared his readiness to die with Jesus, and just as readily denied he ever knew him. Now, with a typical impulse, he commands a crippled man to rise and walk. And the fellow does!

And Peter is not surprised! (Well, perhaps a part of him is.) He had already stood up in front of thousands and boldly proclaimed the Resurrection. He had felt a surge of confidence tossing aside all his former apprehension. Why shouldn’t he command this fellow to walk?

Perhaps he was like my friend, Father Finnegan, who was not at all prepared when the bishop told him, “Get up there and preach.” He bowed before the altar for a moment and prayed, “God, I don’t mind if you make a fool of Finnegan; but please don’t make a fool of yourself!”

Peter’s bold simplicity appears in his words, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you….” He is well aware of his poverty in the eyes of the world. He has no apparent resources and no claim to authority. He has only the Name of Jesus.

But that, of course, is all the Church needs.

Missionaries today rightly undergo extensive preparation before undertaking God’s work. But the preparation is mostly stripping excess away. We should set aside the baggage of old resentments, secret ambitions, hidden agendas and ego desires. We should neither crave success nor fear failure; we don’t even know what those words mean. 

If we acquire anything it is faith the size of a mustard seed. That was all the baggage the disciples carried as they witnessed in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.