Wednesday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 18, 2023

The Feast of St. Luke

Luke 10, 1-9

The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’ ”

This Gospel Reading is used for St. Luke’s feast because certain of the Fathers concluded that Luke, a Gentile convert to Judaism, was included in the number of the seventy-two disciples whom Jesus sent sent out on mission.  The Reading certainly does describe the life of a disciple on mission, as St. Paul attests in his letters.  

Luke writes of the missionary journeys he undertook with St. Paul in his Acts of the Apostles but he shines his light on Paul, only mentioning himself very casually as his companion in certain episodes.  We can learn something about him from this — that he was fervent in his belief in Christ, that he was familiar with Paul’s way of thinking and preaching, that he must have enjoyed robust health during this time, and that he must have met several of the Apostles, in his travels.  Tradition tells us, in addition, that he was a greeting speaking convert to Judaism from Syria, perhaps from Antioch, which was evangelized early and where a strong Christian community grew.  We can also tell from the literary quality of the Greek in his Gospel that he had received a formal education.  At the same time, he lapses into Hebrew word order at significant points, such as in his first chapter, revealing a knowledge of that language sufficient for translating it into Greek.

It is, above all, in his preface to his Gospel that we learn about him from his own lips: “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a narration of the things that have been accomplished among us, according as they have delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having diligently attained to all things from the beginning, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the verity of those words in which you have been instructed” (Luke 1, 1-4).  Here we have a man of culture, formally educated in the Greek schools.  He shows meticulous care in his learning about the Lord’s life from the beginning, obviously speaking to multiple witnesses, and his appreciation of the importance of setting what he has learned in consecutive order so that his book is more like a biography than the other Gospels.  His concern is for Theophilus to be convinced of the truth in which he was been instructed, and knowing his fellow Greeks, he presents the evidence which he, as a trustworthy recorder, has gathered from sources of which he feels confident, and presents the evidence in an orderly way.  

As for what else can be said about St. Luke, he followed his Gospel with the priceless account of the spread of the early Church contained in the Acts of the Apostles.  St. Paul also called him his “divine physician”, leading to him being considered a patron saint of medical doctors.  Paul, in 2 Timothy 4, 11, says that Luke is with him in Rome, even after other supporters of his had left.  Luke is said to have died in Greece.

With the help of St. Luke, may we present the Gospel of Christ in our deeds and words so that others will know that the Kingdom of God is at hand for them.