Today we celebrate the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. He was born of a pagan family. After his conversion he became a fellow-worker of the apostle Paul. From St. Paul's preaching he compiled one of the gospels, the third. He also handed down another work, The Acts of the Apostles, which tells of the events of the beginnings of the Church up to the time of Paul's first sojourn in Rome.
Luke was also a physician and referred to as The Beloved Physician.
The basic point of Luke's New Testament writings is to underscore the love and compassion of Christ and his concern for the poor. Some of the most moving and memorable parables emphasizing these themes are in Luke's Gospel, for example, the Prodigal Son, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. He also mentions women more in his gospel than any of the other three evangelists. 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!
The first reading today Paul tells Timothy that it is God himself who gives him the strength to do what needs to be done in his work; Luke, most certainly felt that same power and presence in his own work; and it is available to us who are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus: strength of resurrected life through suffering and trial of earthly life as we do our God-given work!
In the gospel passage Jesus tells his disciples and co-workers to trust in him absolutely and he would provide what they needed as they made their way proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven in the person of Jesus!
May we receive what the apostles and evangelists have to offer us: divinely inspired and truly useful accounts of the life of Christ: and may we believe and then put into practice what we hear – for our own good and the good of the whole Church!
I chose you from the world, to go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.
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