Prayer in the Upper Room
Acts 1:12–26
As the disciples await the coming of the Holy Spirit, they offer us a pattern for spiritual renewal in our homes, parishes, communities, and world. The pattern begins with obedience to the command of Jesus and continues with the fervent prayer of the gathered community. Their concerted prayer leads to their understanding of how Scripture applies to their situation and to divine guidance in finding a replacement for Judas. The disciples’ prayer also prepares them for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The Apostles and Mary Pray for the Holy Spirit (1:12–14)
12Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.
13When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
OT: Gen 13:8; 14:16; 29:15; Deut 19:15; Isa 2:2–4
NT: Luke 6:13–16; 8:1–3; 22:14–38; John 19:26–27; Acts 3:1–11; Gal 3:28
Catechism: Mary praying with the Church, 726, 2617, 2673; prayer for the Holy Spirit, 1310, 2623
Lectionary: Our Lady of the Rosary; Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year A)
[1:12]
The eleven remaining apostles immediately obey the angels’ command to stop gaping after the ascended Jesus and to follow Jesus’ directives (v. 11). After they return to Jerusalem, they go to the upper room to pray. Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem, which the Old Testament portrays as the future location of God’s special blessings on both Jews and Gentiles (Ps 87; Isa 2:2–4). It is unclear whether the upper room is the one where the Last Supper took place (Luke 22:12). It may be the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother, where disciples later gathered to pray (Acts 12:12), or some other place in Jerusalem. In Acts, upper rooms are places where Jesus’ resurrection power is displayed (see 9:36–41; 20:8–10).
This is the first mention in Acts of the mount from which Jesus ascended, Olivet, or Mount of Olives, which is close enough to Jerusalem that one can walk from it to the city without violating Jewish limitations on travel on the sabbath. In Luke 24:50 Bethany is named as the site of the ascension, and Luke 19:29 clarifies that Bethany is on the Mount of Olives.
[1:13]
Luke repeats the names of the eleven remaining apostles, recalling Jesus’ choice of the Twelve in Luke 6:13–16. The first two pairs of brothers called by Jesus are listed first—Peter and John and James and Andrew. But instead of pairing them as brothers—Peter and Andrew, James and John (as in Luke 6:14)—Luke first names the three who are most prominent in Acts, in order of their importance. Peter and John are Jesus’ primary witnesses in Acts 3–5; James will be the first apostle to be martyred (Acts 12:2); Andrew will not be mentioned again. Two pairs come next in the list, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew. With the omission of the twelfth, Judas Iscariot, the last three are mentioned together, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
Luke emphasizes witness in pairs because Jesus sent out his apostles in pairs—the Twelve in Mark 6:7; the Seventy (or Seventy-two) in Luke 10:1. One reason Jesus may have done so is because, according to the law of Moses, legal testimony requires two witnesses (Deut 19:15; see 17:6). Luke later depicts the witnessing pairs Peter and John (Acts 3:1–11; 4:13) and Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:25–30; 12:25; 13:2). Even today, it is a blessing and protection to be able to witness or minister in mutually supportive pairs rather than alone.
[1:14]
The eleven devoted themselves with one accord to prayer. A more literal translation would be that they “were persisting with one accord in prayer.” Luke calls attention to the persistence of the prayer of the earliest Jerusalem community (Acts 1:14; 2:42, 46; 6:4). Even more, he emphasizes that they prayed together with one accord (Greek homothymadon), just as at the sealing of the Old Covenant God’s people had responded with one accord (homothymadon), “Everything the Lord has said, we will do” (Exod 19:8 LXX). Such united prayer calls to mind Jesus’ teaching in Matthew, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (18:20).
Luke goes out of his way to mention that the apostles were not alone in praying for the Spirit. They prayed together with some women. Because the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost will bring about the birth of the Church, Luke emphasizes that not only the apostolic leaders but also a representative gathering of both men and women constituted the first Christian community. He prepared for this in his Gospel by mentioning that Jesus was accompanied in his travels not only by the Twelve but also by some women who sustained them from their means (Luke 8:1–3).
This emphasis on women as part of the original community at Pentecost also prepares for Peter’s explanation in which he quotes the prophet Joel: “I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17). Luke is noted for stressing the equal dignity not only of Jew and Gentile but also of male and female (as does Paul in Gal 3:28).
Luke goes out of his way to mention the presence of Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Mary was the first to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). As the Holy Spirit overshadowed her to bring about the birth of Jesus, he will overshadow the 120 disciples at Pentecost to bring about the birth of the Church.
Reflection and Application (1:12–14)
The apostles, Mary, and other disciples’ prayer for the Holy Spirit was vital preparation for their witness to Jesus’ resurrection and for the birth of the Church. Luke presents the persistent, united communal prayer of these first members of the Church to us for imitation. If we want to find and do the will of God, we too, like the earliest followers of Jesus, should earnestly join our sisters and brothers in Christ, both clerical and lay, along with Jesus’ mother Mary, in fervent and unified prayer for empowerment by the Holy Spirit.
The beginning of the twenty-first century has been marked by a revival of Catholic devotion to Mary. When Jesus confides his mother to “the disciple . . . whom he loved” in John 19:25–27, that unnamed disciple stands for all who aspire to be Jesus’ beloved disciples. Inspired by the example of Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, many students, seminarians, priests, and religious have been rediscovering traditional expressions of Marian piety such as the rosary and personal consecration to Jesus through Mary. Especially after the death of my own mother, I too have found myself turning more in prayer to Mary as my mother.
Choosing a Replacement for Judas (1:15–26)
15During those days Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers (there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons in the one place). He said, 16“My brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled which the holy Spirit spoke beforehand through the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17He was numbered among us and was allotted a share in this ministry. 18He bought a parcel of land with the wages of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his insides spilled out. 19This became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem, so that the parcel of land was called in their language ‘Akeldama,’ that is, Field of Blood. 20For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
‘Let his encampment become desolate,
and may no one dwell in it.’
And:
‘May another take his office.’
21Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, 22beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. 24Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.” 26Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
OT: Ps 69:26; 109:8
NT: Matt 27:3–10; Luke 22:30–32; 1 Tim 3:1
Catechism: witnesses to the resurrection, 642, 995; Judas, 597
Lectionary: Acts 1:15–17, 20a, 20c–26: Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year B); Feast of St. Matthias
[1:15]
Luke numbers the community members at about one hundred and twenty persons, a round number that has symbolic significance. Biblical Israel had twelve tribes. Later Jewish tradition considered ten men a minyan, or quorum, for communal prayer. The 120 members of the Christian community at prayer may symbolize a quorum of all twelve tribes of a restored Israel.
[1:16–17]
Peter is clearly the leader who presides over the proceedings and speaks for the group. He asserts that Judas’s betrayal and loss of ministry among the Twelve was foretold by Scripture (see Ps 41:10). By saying the holy Spirit spoke, Peter affirms the Jewish belief that Scripture is inspired by the Spirit (see Mark 12:36; 2 Tim 3:16). The scripture had to be fulfilled about Judas, who had been one of the apostles but who guided those who arrested Jesus. This does not imply that Judas lacked free will but that God foreknew his betrayal and used it for the accomplishment of his plan. Judas had been allotted a share (klēros) in this ministry, but he forfeited this honor by his actions.
[1:18–19]
Although details of Judas’s death and the purchase of the Field of Blood vary between this account and the version in Matt 27:3–10, both versions link Judas’s betrayal for money and a field purchased with that money. They also share the point that Judas died after betraying Jesus and that his blood money was of no benefit to him. In falling headlong, or prostrate, Judas suffered the punishment of the wicked described in Wis 4:19.
[1:20]
As betrayer of Jesus, Judas removed himself from the rest of the Twelve. Peter quotes from two psalms that express the fate of the wicked: “Let his encampment become desolate, / and may no one dwell in it” (quoting a version of Ps 69:26) and “May another take his office” (Ps 109:8). The Greek word for “office,” episkopē, was later used by the early Christians to refer to a leadership position in the local church (see 1 Tim 3:1) and is the origin of the English word “episcopacy.” Jesus promised the Twelve that in his kingdom “you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:30). The office vacated by the defecting Judas had to be filled because the apostolic number twelve is symbolic of the restored faithful Israel.
This is Peter’s first act in fulfillment of Jesus’ commission to him at the Last Supper: “I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32). By initiating and leading the community’s restoration of the original number of the Twelve, Peter begins to strengthen his brothers.
[1:21–22]
Judas’s replacement among the twelve apostles had to meet a criterion: to be a witness to his resurrection the candidate must have accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us. The period in question was Jesus’ entire public ministry, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us.
[1:23–26]
The community proposed two candidates who met this criterion: Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias. The ultimate choice, however, they left to the risen Jesus: “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all.” They prayed to Jesus to show which one of these two he had chosen to replace Judas in the apostolic ministry. Their method of discovering the risen Jesus’ choice was to cast lots, a biblical method of seeking God’s will, and especially of assigning the duties of priests (Luke 1:9).
