The Feast of St. Luke, Monday, October 18, 2021

2 Timothy 4:10-17b

Demas, enamored of the present world, deserted me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Luke is the only one with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is helpful to me in the ministry. I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak I left with Carpus in Troas, the papyrus rolls, and especially the parchments.  Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. You too be on guard against him, for he has strongly resisted our preaching.  At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

The link for the online Bible Study on Monday night, 7:00 PM Central Time, 8:00 PM Eastern time, is: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/3806645258?pwd=MUNuU0ZxNFM3NnpiclZCcFF6SFhyQT09.  The Meeting ID is: 380 664 5258; and the Passcode is: 140026.  We will continue our study of the Godpel of St. Matthew.  Anyone can join in!  Questions are encouraged!

St. Paul was sent to prison in Rome three times.  He wrote this letter to St. Timothy during his second imprisonment.  He would be released eventually, then return to Jerusalem, resume his missionary work, and be arrested a final time, and martyred.  In the part of the letter used for the First Reading for today’s Mass, Paul mentions several of his assistants who have left for other places.  We do not know the circumstances of their leaving him in prison, but Paul felt abandoned by them.  He does say, “Luke is the only one with me.”  Luke had accompanied Paul steadfastly, sharing in his toil and sufferings for some years.  It would seem that Luke had already written his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles by this time, as the Acts concludes with Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome a few years before.

St. Luke was born in Syria about the same time as our Lord.  He was born a Gentile and spoke Greek, the language dominant in Syria at that time, although he could also have spoken the Aramaic that was growing in usage.  His wide knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures seems to indicate that he became a Jew, as St. Jerome writes.  In Colossians 4, 14, Paul refers to him as “the dear physician”, which may mean that he was a doctor of medicine, although Paul may have meant to speak in a spiritual sense.  At some point in his adulthood he heard the word of God and converted.  It is possible that he converted through the preaching of Paul, which could account for his close association with him in the years afterwards.  He wrote his Gospel before the year 60, perhaps in the late 50’s during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome.  He must have written the Acts before Paul was released, as the book ends with him still under house arrest.  An ancient tradition says that he preached in Dalmatia after Paul’s death, and that he himself died at the age of 74.  This same tradition holds that he never married.  From his Gospel and the Acts we can surmise that he knew several of the Apostles well, particularly Peter.  And he seems to have interviewed for his Gospel members of the Lord’s family, very possibly including the Blessed Virgin Mary, who must have lived in Jerusalem for a number of years before moving with St. John to Ephesus.  It is not clear whether he suffered as a martyr, but the Church honors him with red vestments on his feast day because of the suffering he did endure on his missionary trips.

The traditional collect prayer for St. Luke:

O Lord, we beseech You, that Luke, Your holy Evangelist, who for the honor of your name bore continually in his body the suffering of the Cross, may intercede in our behalf.  Through Christ our Lord.