Praying Your Way through Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles by Boyer Mark G.;

Author:Boyer, Mark G.; [Boyer, Mark G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498228596
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2015-10-02T07:00:00+00:00

Hour of Prayer

(3:1–2): Wednesday of the Octave of Easter, Years I & II; June 29 (Vigil)

Scripture: “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.” (Acts 3:1–2)

Reflection: The author of the Acts of the Apostles is the same person who wrote Luke’s Gospel. In the gospel, the temple plays an important role because the author understands that the new Israel (Christianity) is birthed by the old Israel (Judaism). The temple is not only the locus for many of the events of Jesus’ life, but it is also the setting for many events in the apostles’ lives.

Such is the case when Peter and John were preparing to observe the three o’clock hour of prayer, the traditional Jewish time of the evening sacrifice. The books of Exodus and Numbers describe the evening sacrifice as a burnt offering of a lamb with flour and oil. While the two apostles are approaching the temple, a lame man, being carried by others, is also simultaneously approaching it.

The lame man asks Peter and John for alms—a traditional Jewish obligation—which they do not have to give. However, what they do have is stated by Peter: “. . . [W]hat I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk” (3:6). And with those alms, the man is healed. Thus, like Jesus healed a cripple in Luke’s Gospel, Peter and John heal a lame man; and later in the Acts, Paul heals a man crippled from birth. The action of the apostles’ healing paralleling Jesus’ healing is a theme woven through Luke and Acts.

What is more important to notice is the time of the healing; it is the hour of prayer, the time of sacrifice. The apostles offer the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to the lame man at the same time as the lamb is being offered in the temple. While the theme of Jesus being the Lamb of God is more pronounced in John’s Gospel, it is present here, too. The One who died on the cross as a sacrifice to bring healing to the whole world continues to heal through his followers. The time of this healing corresponds with the hour of prayer.

The simplest of prayers is that of repetition of the name “Jesus.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always.”1 Furthermore, it teaches:

The name “Jesus” contains all: God and man [and woman] and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray “Jesus” is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and

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