Acts 3:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See what meekness Peter immediately showed when he said, "Look at us." Thus their very outward appearance revealed the quality of their soul.

After the sacred historian, in the first two chapters of his narrative, has told us how the opening of the Kingdom of God, or the Church of Christ on earth, was prepared, begun, and accomplished, he now recounts a remarkable and extraordinary event. This event had great significance for the success of the apostolic preaching, for aiding the inner condition of the first Christian community, and for its outward relations and position in Jerusalem. It was the miraculous healing by the Apostle Peter of a man lame from birth.

“Looking intently,” “look,” and “he fixed his attention”: this mutual intensity of gazes between the lame man and the apostles is remarkable. It was like a mutual preparation for an extraordinary deed, a miracle. Peter and John looked intently at the poor man with a gaze full of Christ’s love and compassion. By this look, and by drawing the lame man’s gaze to themselves, “Look at us,” they wished to know how much spiritual receptivity he had for the intended miraculous act of mercy (cf. Acts 14:9). They also wished to gather his spirit and awaken faith and hope. But the lame man’s hopes were attached more to earthly things. He looked intently at the apostles in the hope of receiving alms from them. Yet the apostles likely discerned something more in his gaze. For this reason they judged him worthy and capable of receiving the extraordinary gift of God’s mercy.

The asking of alms by the crippled is, so to speak, a matter of universal human common life. So too is the fact that this asking takes place at the temple, where it has a preparatory significance for the work of prayer and especially for the offering of sacrifices. Among many peoples, portions were set apart from sacrifices for such unfortunate persons. Evidently many willingly helped this poor man as well, and therefore he boldly turned to the apostles for alms. But Peter and John, for some reason, looked at him especially intently and even told him to look at them. They wanted to make sure that this was indeed that unfortunate man, whose face showed both his sorrow and his hope in the mercy of God, which is accomplished through human almsgiving.