Our saint for today is another from Syria. Yesterday we celebrated the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch who was born in Syria. Today we celebrate another from Syria: St. Luke the Evangelist.
Luke is the author of the Third Gospel, as well as the Acts of the Apostles. Since he was considered to be a physician, he is the patron saint of physicians; because he is said to have painted an icon of the Blessed Mother (which hangs in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome) he is also the patron saint of artists.
Luke was a companion of St. Paul on his missionary journeys - this is evidenced from our first reading today: Paul says that several of his companions are no longer with him, and “Luke is the only one with me.”
The basic point of Luke’s New Testament writings is to underscore the love and compassion of Jesus and his concern for the poor. While Matthew was more didactic - and wrote as a teacher, Luke was more personal and wrote about matters of the heart - the heart of Christ! This is seen in some of the most moving and memorable parables in all of the gospels, such as the Prodigal Son, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. Women also figure more prominently in his Gospel than in any other, for example, Mary, the Mother of Jesus (the complete nativity account is only found in Luke), Elizabeth, the widow of Nain, the woman who was a sinner, Mary Magdalen and several other women of Jerusalem. He also places great emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and of the individual Christian, and on the importance of prayer!
In the gospel passage today from Luke, Jesus sends out his disciples to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand! In other words: Jesus - is here, at their doors, in their villages! He told them that this would be dangerous work. They would be rejected and mistreated! And some of them even killed! St. Paul, and Luke himself, in the first reading, were experiencing these very things. But the reward for sticking to such important and vital work is worth the effort!
The presence of the promised Holy Spirit makes the work Jesus sends us to do, not only possible in spite of all obstacles, but also effective and so very powerful! It is the Apostle’s and disciple’s job to proclaim peace, to proclaim the Kingdom, to proclaim JESUS. How they are received illustrates the condition of fallen human nature! But, as Jesus stayed the course to the end, as Paul did the same, as Luke did the same - so we are called to proclaim peace, to proclaim the Kingdom, to proclaim Jesus and to stay the course until we reach the Kingdom and the place prepared for us in it!
Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.
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