The greatness of Peter's miracles

And Moses promised that a prophet would rise up for you (Deut 18:15). Having dealt with these and similar matters, he went away, adding others as many as the three thousands.

Such a man was indeed bold in speaking publicly, eager, undaunted, and wise for the guidance into the mysteries of the gospel, making the cowardice of his own and of his opponents a terror.

Because it was not only most diligent for the most excellent teacher of piety to labor for the great number of God's people, but much more to have the disciples live strictly according to the laws given, he saw that Ananias—that one who was a thief of his own fruits and intended to introduce a strange sacrilege and a bad habit of sin to the Christians—and he decisively cut him off from the church; he was not being crude or murderous in his intention, but in view of the purpose of benefit, he thus treated the sin as a physician.

For since the people were new converts and newly pure, having received the evangelical laws from the mixture of Greek and Jewish ways, it is expected that the disciples need not only verbal admonition, but also some practical fear; for men have somewhat habituated themselves so that, in order that they might be regulated in the beginnings of their customs, they might keep the habit until their end.

And because of this, having exposed the sin, he immediately brought death as the punishment, not using a sword, nor handing him over to executioners, but then showing the power of Christ differently in the manner of the removal. For he summoned, and the one summoned, having fallen, expired. How great this is, and how much reverence he worked in the church, we do not need to learn.

For two things were achieved in one: that our Savior be believed to be God, and that the teacher of his laws has angels accompanying him, ready, working according to the will of the apostle. He wished to benefit the lame, and the grace was not slow; he willed to punish the sacrilege, and the punishment occurred.

These things are sufficient to strike even stony souls and to persuade them firmly, that the words spoken by Peter (Acts 5:3-4) were not a deception; but God was with him and the mystery which he announced was holy and true. And it is necessary to attend to this, that the thing on the other hand...

A sign was once provided by the apostle through necessity, in folly and murder, so that those with evil intentions might be shown the power of punishment. However, the performance of benefits and healings occurred daily and continuously, and such ease and grace surrounded him in healing, so that no sick person who approached left deceived of hope, but went home whole and healthy. And every place in Jerusalem where Peter appeared to speak Christ was a place, and the crowd of following sick people had a daily wondrous spectacle from a mixed multitude, some gathered to be freed from the evils of the crowd, others to behold those being healed.

Thus also that wonderful thing concerning the apostle is written, which was not said of any of the others, that the relatives and the households of the sick brought them upon beds publicly, so that even the shadow of Peter, when he came, might overshadow some of them. This indeed is already greater than the Lord's own wonders, and the servant is praised above the Lord. And perhaps in this sign the prophecy is fulfilled, which the Savior made to the disciples: 'Amen, amen I say to you: the one believing in me the works which I do, he will do also, and he will do greater things than these' (John 14:12).

When I say this, I do not compare the servant to the Master. Away! The thought is going mad; but that God, by showing His own power through those healing by His own power, enriched none of the disciples like Peter with his own gifts, but rather set him above all by gifts from above; and just as he became the first disciple according to the order of time, so he was shown greater than the brothers in the experience of things by the power of the Spirit.

He was called first and quickly obeyed; found by the seashores in the turbulent region of the world, always surrounded by waves and the ceaseless sound crying around the winds. He was the first among Christians to think of cosmic things, transcending all those in all things, and he was transferred toward the intelligible and the super-cosmic. And perhaps someone of the poor and obscure says, calling that thrice-blessed one: 'What...'