1st Week of Easter – Wednesday A

And in today’s readings, first from the Book of Acts, where we hear Peter and John going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer. Now, the first thing that strikes me right away in this reading is how many beautiful things we have in common with the apostles and the early Church. Three o’clock is one of the hours for the Divine Office, for example, what we call the Liturgy of the Hours. But I know a lot of people who splendidly have responded to our Lord’s desire, as expressed through a private revelation to Saint Faustina Kowalska, that the Divine Mercy Chaplet be prayed at three o’clock. So here the apostles go to the temple area for the three o’clock prayer.

Okay, so what exactly did that prayer consist of back then in the times of Jesus? Well, the three o’clock hour of prayer refers to the ninth hour, 3 p.m., one of the fixed daily prayer times observed by devout Jews. These times were tied to the daily sacrifices offered in the temple. So there would be a morning sacrifice, which was in the third hour, meaning 9 a.m., and then in the afternoon in the ninth hour, 3 p.m., which was associated with the tamid or continual evening sacrifice. So when Peter and John go up, they are aligning themselves with the official liturgical life of Israel. And they are not necessarily inventing something new.

But what did this prayer exactly consist of? First, there was a sacrificial context. It was linked to the priestly liturgy at the temple itself. Priests would carry out the offering of a lamb, the tamid sacrifice, the burning of incense inside the sanctuary, and ritual blessings. So the prayer was not led by the people, but by the priests. Secondly, it involved communal prayer outside in the courts. The people participated in a more responsive and devotional way. They would stand in prayer, which was a typical Jewish posture, and they would recite psalms, especially those tied to the sacrifice, and they would pray personally, silently or even by whispering. Now there were possibly other structured blessings, early forms of what later became fixed synagogue prayer. But today we are more spontaneous in our desire to pray at three p.m. But let us keep this pious practice of the devout Jews back then in mind and remember that now with Christ we ought to be even more devout and disciplined in respecting the three o’clock hour.

So what do Peter and John encounter? We go on with the reading: “And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple” (Acts 3:2). So here is a man who, due to his condition, was unable to work, who was broken, excluded from the community, and his family, perhaps wishing to look after him, would place him at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate, ironically, where there was nothing beautiful about his condition, so as to perhaps gather some funds for his and their livelihood.

Now why was this gate called “Beautiful,” exactly? Well, when Peter looks at the man intently and says, “Silver or gold I have none, but what I have I give you” (Acts 3:6), he is most likely standing at that gate which, according to ancient historians like Eusebius of Caesarea, was made from precious materials that even surpassed silver and gold.

So, "Peter looks at the crippled man intently, as did John, and Peter said, “Look at us.” And the man paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. And Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, rise and walk” (Acts 3:4–6). And through Saint Peter’s prayer, Jesus heals this man who was crippled from birth, who rises up and enters through the gate, walking, leaping, and praising God.

My brothers and sisters, the true beauty of the gate is revealed not in the bronze or the precious materials it was made from, but in the restoration, salvation, and access to God which it represented. Now what Peter and John prayed and obtained for him was something far more precious than that beautiful gate, for they were about to introduce him to the power of the one who once said: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:9).

My brothers and sisters, let us remember that it is the Lord who raises us to new life. It is the Lord who allows us to see our lives and everything in it, and the world around us, with his eyes of compassion, mercy, love, and concern. In the Gospel, we encounter the disciples on their way to Emmaus, and they begin to explain everything to Jesus about what had happened concerning him, and he is standing right beside them, and they do not recognize him in his glorified, risen form. And after they expressed their anxiety and their sadness and their concerns, Jesus said to them: “Oh, how foolish you are, how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:25–26).

My brothers and sisters, have we not all been foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke? Yet Jesus patiently walks with us and teaches us. He even sends his own mother to remind us in our own day. First, he sent out the apostles two thousand years ago. Then he sends out all of us to evangelize with our lives. But he also sends his mother on a continual basis to remind us that there is a gate more beautiful than any in this world, that once you enter through it, you find life, and you go back out into the world with a renewed vigor, ready to live life to the full. And that gate is her very Son, our Lord Jesus, whom we have all been blessed and transformed by.

So may the risen Christ continue to show you signs of his continual presence in your daily walk of faith. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace, thanking the Lord.