The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Wednesday of the Easter Octave, challenge us to review our walk in life with openness to the events which may have brought us close to the Presence of Christ as we assess our impatience with the Way God is revealing His Love to us.
The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles presents the Healing of a lame beggar as Peter approaches the Temple.
* [3:1–4:31] This section presents a series of related events: the dramatic cure of a lame beggar (Acts 3:1–10) produces a large audience for the kerygmatic discourse of Peter (Acts 3:11–26).…
* [3:1] For the three o’clock hour of prayer: literally, “at the ninth hour of prayer.” With the day beginning at 6 A.M., the ninth hour would be 3 P.M.
* [3:6–10] The miracle has a dramatic cast; it symbolizes the saving power of Christ and leads the beggar to enter the temple, where he hears Peter’s proclamation of salvation through Jesus. (Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 105 invites us to praise and seek the presence of God.
* [Psalm 105] A hymn to God who promised the land of Canaan to the holy people, cf. Ps 78; 106; 136. Israel is invited to praise and seek the presence of God (Ps 105:1–6), who is faithful to the promise of land to the ancestors (Ps 105:7–11). (Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB, n.d.)
In the Gospel, Luke presents the Appearance of Resurrected Jesus on the Road to Emmaus.
* [24:13–35] This episode focuses on the interpretation of scripture by the risen Jesus and the recognition of him in the breaking of the bread. The references to the quotations of scripture and explanation of it (Lk 24:25–27), the kerygmatic proclamation (Lk 24:34), and the liturgical gesture (Lk 24:30) suggest that the episode is primarily catechetical and liturgical rather than apologetic.
* [24:13] Seven miles: literally, “sixty stades.” A stade was 607 feet. Some manuscripts read “160 stades” or more than eighteen miles. The exact location of Emmaus is disputed.
* [24:16] A consistent feature of the resurrection stories is that the risen Jesus was different and initially unrecognizable (Lk 24:37; Mk 16:12; Jn 20:14; 21:4).
* [24:26] That the Messiah should suffer…: Luke is the only New Testament writer to speak explicitly of a suffering Messiah (Lk 24:26, 46; Acts 3:18; 17:3; 26:23). The idea of a suffering Messiah is not found in the Old Testament or in other Jewish literature prior to the New Testament period, although the idea is hinted at in Mk 8:31–33. See notes on Mt 26:63 and 26:67–68. (Luke, CHAPTER 24 | USCCB, n.d.)
Rev. Larry Gillick, SJ, tells of a walk with a close person that was kind of a sweet/sour relating of all the bumps and bruises encountered, endured in our recent days. Sweet, because we enjoy self-righteous sufferings and judgments. Sour, because we cannot do anything in retribution in reality except pout.
Well, of course, Jesus came alongside and butted in on our conversation and began untangling the threads of our self-centered prayer or whatever it was.
He went with me and started to talk about worthy/unworthy. He reminded me that He was my worthiness. When I allowed Him to embrace my real, true poverty which accompanies my acceptance of my humanity, my poverty. Unworthiness is the destructive invitation of the Corruptor. “I am in a constant battle between His Creative Spirit and my own subtle seduction of my creating my richness, my own image, my own worthiness, my little self-kingdom.”
With this little shot across my floundering deck, He went on His way, leaving me worthy to be myself more gratefully and less occupied with, hmm, I forgot. Omaha never looked so welcoming as my home. (Gillick, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “The Easter Alleluia,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbor, "Praise the Lord!" and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions." (excerpt from commentary on Psalm 148) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10 comments how appropriate that we hear this passage during the Octave of Easter! Jesus’ resurrection is the perfect example of how God not only honors the physical world but is committed to working in it and through it. God didn’t simply send an angel to tell us that his Son had overcome death. He raised Jesus’ body from the dead to demonstrate that his kingdom is a place where brokenness of any kind can be transformed into wholeness. Similarly, by grasping the beggar’s hand while healing him, Peter reveals that Jesus has transformed our world—and that he will continue to transform it.
So this Easter week, praise the Lord who heals and restores. And find ways to demonstrate his healing love. Reach out to those close to you and offer them the grace of Jesus’ healing touch. You never know what might happen!
“Jesus, make me an instrument of your healing!” (Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler comments the reading from Acts when Peter and John enter the Temple area indicates they are still attending the Temple worship as Jews. This healing marks the continuation of Jesus' ministry that His disciples have taken over. Luke presents this in Acts as Jesus ministry through the Apostles. In the Gospel, Luke presents the second resurrection narrative, a walk where Jesus is not recognized as He joins two disciples consumed with their thought. This is the second of three times, in the Gospel of Luke, where the Resurrected Jesus is not immediately recognized. The third appearance occurs when the apostles are fishing on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus teaches them, on the walk, about Scripture and how His mission is foretold. Friar Jude notes Jesus is recognized and remembered at the breaking of the bread and, as they recall, His Presence on the walk, in the sharing of the Word.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces womanist theologian Yolanda Pierce who reminds us that the resurrection and its promise of new life doesn’t erase the pain of what has been lost. Pierce notes that to Thomas, Jesus speaks the words, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side” (John 20:27)….
There is an intimacy to Jesus’s command to Thomas, a closeness that we cannot overlook. Christ invites him to touch the unhealed wounds—to feel the places where nails and spear had pierced his body. It is a proclamation that the physical body still matters…. Wounds, too, are a part of the divine story. By sharing his wounds, Jesus reveals that our wounds are places for God’s healing presence and love.
This is a theology for the wounded, for those who are still healing, and even for those who aren’t quite ready for healing. The risen Savior insistently welcomes the doubting, the uncertain, and the grieving to touch and see that he is real and present and here with us. The risen Savior, who had been abandoned, denied, betrayed, and crucified, doesn’t hide his wounds or rush their healing. As wounded people encased in the frailties of human flesh, can we, too, summon enough grace and kindness to acknowledge that our own very human wounds need time to heal?…
This is an embodied theology. In these stories, the physical body and the tangible world are consistently presented as ways of intimately knowing God. Some saw and believed; others have not seen and still believed. At the center of both experiences is God-in-flesh, loving us in our own wounded places. (Rohr, n.d.)
We invite the Spirit to come on our journey and reveal to us the connection we have to Jesus walking with us transforming the wounds and hurts that life inflects.
References
Acts of the Apostles, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/3?1
Gillick, L. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Creighton Online Ministries: Home. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-april-8-2026
Luke, CHAPTER 24 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/24?13
Meditation on Acts 3 :1-10. (n.d.). Word Among Us. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://wau.org/meditations/2026/04/07/1539149/
Psalms, PSALM 105 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/105?1
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Hope for the Wounded. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/hope-for-the-wounded/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Did Not Our Hearts Burn While He Opened to Us the Scriptures. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 8, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/
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