Wednesday of Easter Week

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041112.cfm

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple,
he asked for alms.
But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,
and said, "Look at us."
He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.

The eugenics movement would purify the human race of all defects. The movement began as a scientific experiment of breeding human human beings for preferred characteristics. When the Nazis came to power in Germany they tried to speed up the process by destroying “undesirable” people, especially the Jews, Roma, people with mental disabilities, homosexuals and certain religious types. Nazism was finally defeated in the bloodiest war in history, but the movement persists with the practice of abortion. Many unborn children who are suspected of birth defects are destroyed with the consent of their parents. Their “defects” may be severe (e.g. a fetus born without a brain) or simply non-preferred (a boy or a girl.)

But there is no end of “defects” among human beings; the effort to eradicate defects would finally eliminate all human beings because every one of us is flawed, dependent and needy. No one can survive without enormous amounts of help from everyone else.  Every human being must give and receive, including 

the man crippled from birth (who) 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.

That poor fellow still lives in every major city, occupying his station near churches, public buildings and major intersections. He is very visible even when we don’t want to see him. Sometimes he (or she) drives an electric wheelchair across the intersections. Obviously poor, struggling to survive, relegated to the less fashionable districts: the beggar is Christ and the reason Christ came among us.

What we especially hate is that person’s need, and how

He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.

The sick, the disabled and the poor make demands of our time and resources; and they are always in short supply. There’s never enough to go around. In this story Peter and John apparently had nothing to give.

Peter said, "I have neither silver nor gold…”

It would be easy to miss the point of this story by saying, "Since I can't work miracles there's nothing I can do." Peter and John did something; they dug deep into their resources of faith, generosity, courage and imagination; and they found a way to help the crippled man. Prayerful men filled by the Holy Spirit, they had only to wait for the surge of the Spirit within them to act: 

but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.

Needy people have a claim upon all of us because all of us are needy. We depend upon one another and the Dives who thinks he is totally secure in his wealth and comfort is the neediest of all. If we despise one we despise everyone including our own selves. If we destroy one we have signed our own death warrant. 


Jesus' sacrifice of his very life for the needy teaches us there is always something we can do to help.